You tell yourself you want change, but you’re too afraid to take action.

You want a passionate life, but you meet roadblocks at every turn.

At the heart of this failure to launch is a cluster of limiting beliefs and negative thoughts residing in your psyche and holding you back. You’re really just one or two thoughts away from the ability to make many positive changes in your life.

When you learn to mentally and emotionally disengage from those thoughts, you will catapult your potential to do just about anything you want to do.

This may sound like an outlandish claim, but you have no idea of the power and control limiting beliefs have over you and how dramatically your life can change as a result of extinguishing them.

In fact, I’d be willing to bet 90% of your goals and dreams could be accomplished — if it weren’t for limiting beliefs and the incredibly powerful feelings that fuel these beliefs.

You’ve nourished these feelings over many years through patterns of negative thinking, worry, and self-doubt. As a child and teenager, you likely experienced situations with your family and peers that impacted your confidence and self-esteem. You’ve had years for those thoughts and feelings to brew and percolate.

So much of who we are now and how we perceive the world is shaped by our early childhood experiences. This is particularly true when it comes to our beliefs about our potential for success and happiness, as well as our faith that we’re deserving and capable of living a passionate life.

Even in the most stable families, as a child grows older, goes to school, and interacts with peers, the carefree passion that was once natural and easy is now tempered by social or peer expectations, subtle shaming, and criticisms. As a child moves into adolescence, he may begin to believe the negative feelings he has about himself.

Sometimes we aren’t even conscious of our limiting beliefs around these early issues. We just respond in the way that feels automatic and safe, even if our beliefs and responses are severely limiting us.

Over time these beliefs carve deep grooves in your brain circuitry. The longer we hold on to a belief or fear, the more ingrained it is in our minds. Our adult lives have further added layers of responsibilities, stresses, and disappointments to foster limiting beliefs about ourselves.

Consider what life would be like if all of your ancient limiting beliefs simply disappeared. You are now a blank slate where all possibilities are valid options. There’s nothing holding you back from being or trying anything.

Perhaps there was a time when certain things were true for you — or least felt true. Maybe you weren’t the smartest or most popular. Your parents were critical or not supportive of your dreams. But you’re an adult now. Your parents, teachers, and peers no longer make the rules.

They don’t define you or your abilities. They have no real power over you anymore (unless, of course, you give it to them). You’ve done a lot of living, growing, and learning since then. Isn’t it time to let go of your outdated beliefs and self-imposed limitations?

You can eliminate many limiting beliefs and manage others so they aren’t as powerful or debilitating. As you cut the legs out from under these beliefs, they will begin to loosen their hold over you. Once you do this, you can reclaim the enthusiasm and energy to recreate your life.

• You will do things you never thought possible.
• You will take actions that make things happen.
• You will find passion in life and seize every opportunity.
• You will have the ability to push through fear to achieve big things.

To release limiting beliefs, you can’t simply address the belief itself. You have to get at the root cause, the ancient history and the deeper feelings attached to the belief.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you need years of therapy and navel gazing (although therapy is sometimes necessary for traumatic or deeply painful past events). You don’t have to explore every dimension of your tortured childhood or your ruinous marriage.

You can begin by asking yourself a series of probing questions to unhinge your psyche from the beliefs holding you back and train your brain to see yourself in a different light. Go grab a pen and paper, and write down the answers to the following questions:

1. What is your most debilitating limiting belief?

We all have many limiting beliefs, but isolate one that really interferes with your growth or impacts your ability to take action. You don’t feel good enough? You don’t make enough money? You’re not smart? You aren’t pretty enough? You aren’t lovable?

2. Why do you have this limiting belief?

This is a question you should ask until you run out of answers. Write down every reason you can think of, starting with the main one that probably occurred when you were small. Write these reasons down so you don’t forget them.

3. What evidence do you have that undermines your limiting belief?

You might feel a certain way about yourself, but that doesn’t make it true. And even if there were truth in the original belief and feelings, you have lived a lot of life since then. There are hundreds of reasons why you are smart, lovable, attractive, etc. Write those down too.

4. In what ways are you not fully alive and engaged in life?

How has your limiting belief held you back from the fullness and joy of life? Write down all of the possible situations you can think of.

5. How does it make you feel to have missed engaging in life in the ways you listed above?

Pay attention to the feelings you have knowing what life should be like for you and the ways your belief has prevented you from experiencing it fully. Write down your feelings.

6. What would you do with your life if you no longer had this limiting belief?

Imagine the belief disappeared instantly. How would this change your perceptions of what you can do and how you can change your life? What goals would you set for yourself?

7. Is there any current truth to this limiting belief?

What actual circumstances have happened in the last year or currently that support any truth in your limiting belief?

8. What can you do to correct or change the circumstances you listed in your answer to question 7?

Many of the negative events, problems, or perceived failures we encounter that support our limiting beliefs can be addressed and corrected allowing us to see we aren’t so limited after all.

9. What is the situation or outcome you fear most tied to this limiting belief?

For example, you might fear being humiliated, rejected, unloved, etc. What is the worst thing that could happen if you take action to make change?

10. What do you think the odds are of the worst things happening?

If you release this limiting belief and take action on the things you would do with your life (as you answered in question 6), how likely is it that you would encounter the worst outcome?

11. How comfortable are you with the ambiguity of feeling fear and uncertainty but taking action anyway?

All change involves risk, even when you calculate the possible outcomes and odds. You must take risks in order to grow and create a better life. Can you get comfortable with the presence of ambiguity and uncertainty?

12. How is your limiting belief impacting your relationships now or in the past?

Often we compromise our relationships when we remain stuck in a false belief. Can you see how any of your close relationships have been impacted?

13. Would you be willing to write down your limiting belief on a small piece of paper and seal it in an envelope for a week?

Could you operate in your life by putting this belief “on hold” for a week and act “as if” it didn’t exist? Write it down on a piece of paper and assign a number to it between 1-10, with 10 being “extremely limiting” and 1 being “not very limiting” based on how you feel about the belief now.

14. What is the most pressing or compelling goal you listed in your answer to question 6?

Of all of the things you’ve wanted to achieve but avoided due to your limiting belief, which one stands out as the first you’d like to work toward?

15. What are 3-5 small, manageable actions you could take on your goal this week while your limiting belief is sealed in an envelope?

Acting “as if” you have no limiting belief around your goal, create a few actions you will commit to take in the direction of your goal and write them on a calendar.

Now that your limiting belief is isolated, undermined, and locked in an envelope, use this time of freedom from the belief to take action. Commit to the actions you outlined and marked on your calendar.

You will likely see how taking these actions further loosens the grip of this belief. Open your envelop and assign a number to the belief again as you did in question 13. How has it changed for you?

Consider extending the envelope isolation time for your belief for another week of two, until the power of the belief is almost totally diminished. Or go through this exercise for another limiting belief.

Continue working through your limiting beliefs this way, addressing and undermining them and taking forward action in the direction of your dreams.

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Bland, impersonal sentences, strung together with perfect grammar and syntax, don’t win any awards or sell any widgets in today’s writing marketplace.

Those who write with a purpose other than creating poems, novels and the like need to understand one thing: what you think is great is nothing compared to the need of the reader to find some benefit in your writing.

So, if your sales copy for widgets doesn’t answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” you’ve failed. If your report on some breaking news story doesn’t deliver a hook or bottom line, your reader will question the newsworthiness of your writing.

With that in mind, here are ten habits you might want to cultivate that will make you a better writer, if they become habits:

1. If you’re a mediocre writer, hire it done. This is a serious consideration and requires painful self-reflection. If your “core competence” is somewhere other than crafting finely wrought sentences that others like to read, hire someone to get it done and do what you do best. You cannot make yourself a great writer if you do not have the talent. Use your talents to support great writers, instead.
2. Start early. Get out of bed and start writing while your morning coffee is brewing. This forces your mind into gear and gives you a head start.
3. Start before you’re ready. You just think you have nothing to write. Write something and then write something more. Writing is the beginning of thinking, not the other way around.
4. Write the way you speak. Avoid big words, jargon and precious language. The most important thing you can do is make sure you are not misunderstood, not impress your reader with your intellect and grasp of erudite composition.
5. Imagine your Ideal Reader and write to him or her. Focus on who will benefit from your writing and direct all your efforts towards reaching and holding that person’s attention.
6. Get your title from your summing up sentence at the end. Unless you are given a specific title or subject for your work, you might have trouble crafting a headline. Write everything, sum it up in one sentence and put that at the top. You’re done!
7. Force yourself to write finished copy. You may have developed the habit of writing drafts that are little more than disorganized ideas, in no particular order. Always write a final draft. Push yourself to organize your thinking and write as if your deadline is before you. Writing finished copy the first time is a powerful focus for the mind.
8. Get regular physical exercise. Even though a writer may suppose that mental exercise is the most important mental preparation for writing, actual physical movement does more for clarity of thought and memory. Get up off your aspirations and move!
9. Live your life. All good writers have life experience. There’s no glory or benefit to shutting yourself away from the world in the name of furthering your writing. The more you do in life that is unrelated to your writing work, the more chances you have of experiencing a transformative moment that improves you as a person and a writer.
10. Beware the trap of Perfection. You may have heard a poem that begins, “Beware, my son, of good enough; it isn’t made of sterling stuff.” That’s true. It is also true that perfectionism kills more good ideas (and good writing) than you might believe, because you never actually start. Instead, consider the following as a new rule to apply. “There’s never enough time to do it perfectly the first time. There’s always time to revise and do over.”

No matter which of these you choose, they all have the most powerful force in the Universe behind them: Force of Habit. Take advantage of it.

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I will cover 3 tips that should take you from shooting average videos to shooting beautiful videos, almost overnight. I will give you actions that you can take today and see results right away.

The following tips will also work with your mobile device, whether its an iPhone or an Android phone. You are most likely to be carrying your mobile device than your DSLR so it only makes sense to learn how to effectively shoot video on that. In fact, the iPhone is one of the most popular cameras that Flickr users are using to upload pictures to the site on a daily basis.

1. The Rule of Thirds & Proper Framing

The first tip is a technique called the Rule of Thirds, which is a quick way to make sure your image or video is setup correctly. You start by imagining an image or video broken down into three equal pieces (horizontally and vertically). You should be imagining a grid composed of 9 boxes of equal size.

This grid will allow you place your subject (person, object, etc) in a way that crates a “balanced shot” or basically a shot that is visually appealing to the human eye. In the above picture, you can see the subject (the tree) is placed on the far right vertical line. You always want to place your subjects on the vertical lines. Placing subjects on the vertical lines is a quick way to take balanced shots.

When you’re trying to film someone, you want to try to always keep them on one of the imaginary vertical lines. This can get tricky as the person moves but this will give you reference point to make sure that your final video is set up correctly.

Most camera apps on mobile devices include an option to turn on a grid which will allow you to easily take advantage of this tip.

2. Use a Microphone

Audio is sometimes ignored when talking about creating videos but bad audio can cripple otherwise great videos. The best thing you can do to get great audio is to use a microphone. A wireless microphone is a great option that won’t get in the way or won’t be annoying to hold.

By wearing a wireless microphone, you will be able to capture the voice of your subject and block any unnecessary background noise. Microphones can quickly go from cheap to extremely expensive but you probably don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars in microphones. Options such as the Audio-Technica ATR-3350 are a great way to get started with wireless microphones.

On mobile devices, you will have to get creative to get a good audio. There are options such as Olympus ME-52W but they still won’t work as perfect as wireless microphones. If you’re filming on your mobile device, avoid holding the phone by the microphone (typically found at the bottom of the phone). You would be surprised how many videos you can found online that have a never-ending scratching noise from people who are constantly rubbing against the microphone.

3. Great Lighting is the Final Piece

My last tip will be on lighting and how to use it properly. After audio, proper lighting can be the final thing that makes your videos appear professional and well done.

You basically want to remove any shadows that appear when filming your subject. Setup any lights you may have around 3 feet away from your subject. As an example, if you’re filming an interview, set up 2 lights in front of the subject and placed them in a 45 degree angle directed at your subject. The two lights will balance each other out, creating a nice even light over the subject.

Another common scenario is when you’re filming a subject against a flat wall. The two lights as described above will remove any shadows from your subject but they will create a shadow on the wall itself. You can quickly fix this by placing a light behind the subject, facing the wall.

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Hopefully you can start implementing some of these tips today and start creating better looking videos. Also be sure to check out our article How to Shoot, Edit and Publish Online Video: 5 Free Resources to Get You Started for more useful tips. Or check out 5 Online Video Mistakes That Make You Look Like a Rookie.

What other quick tips do you have for creating great looking videos? Let me know in the comments.

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But more than anything it’s a great sport to help master the mind. There might not be another sport or activity that requires the same level of concentration and focus. And there might not be a sport that is tougher to play and become an expert at.

While this post will talk about my experience coaching golfers and become an expert golfer, I’m positive you’ll learn something from it and be able to implement a few of the ideas. Simply replace golf with whatever you’re trying to become an expert at.

What I want to talk about is the proper mindset required to become a great golfer. I will also talk about working efficiently, but the main focus will be on your mindset.

Mindset Matters

So often the mind sabotages golfers. That’s why we must learn to have our mind work with us, not against us. But how can you do just that? Keep reading and you’ll find the answer.

I see it all the time. A new student tells me how excited there are to take up golf. Many of their reasons are the ones at the top of this post: socializing, networking and even getting exercise. Yes golfers do burn calories!

But after a few lessons they would quit. Never to return again.

For my first few years coaching I wondered why. It wasn’t until three years ago that I figured it out. It came from conversations with people. I’m known as the golf coach so people always tell me they play or have at least tried it.

My goal is to find out if people still play and if not, what their reason is. In this case I get a few commons answers.

“I’m too busy” or “It’s too expensive”. Those are all legit answers.

Then there are answers that sadden me.

“I suck” or “I don’t like screwing up in front of people” or “There are too many things to think about” or “It’s too hard”.

These answers are legit too. But they can be overcome.

Prepare for a Difficult Road Ahead

In golf and other sports you’re attempting to become an expert at, you must adopt the mentality that’s its going to be difficult.

Failures are a part of the plan and embarrassing moments are directly in your path. Your mind will be cluttered with thoughts and efficient work will be required.

Once your mind embraces these challenges you’ll give yourself a better chance to succeed.

Here’s how you can embrace these challenges and succeed.

Dealing With Failure

There is a great line that Alfred says to Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins and recently in the Dark Knight Rises.

“Why do we fall sir? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

Think about that. Failing is all a part of it. Too many people can’t deal with failure and its sidekick, embarrassment.

They give up too easy. What’s worse is they don’t even try. Why? Because they don’t want to fail.

Michael Jordan has a great quote on failing.

So the first step is dealing with failure and accepting that you will fail. Everyone who is an expert has failed. The difference is that they dealt with those failures and learnt from them. They embraced them rather than running away from them.

Now it’s time to kick embarrassment’s ass Chuck Norris style. Is making Chuck Norris references still cool? Anyways…

In the beginning you’re going to fail. And fail often. Shanking shots, hitting them fat, missing the ball completely and slicing like crazy.

Sure this can be embarrassing, however, once you realize that all these golfers that are better than you went through the same thing, you’ll be able to deal with embarrassment comfortably.

Another great way to deal with uncomfortable and embarrassing situations comes from Tim Ferriss. In the 4-Hour Workweek he lists some comfort challenges. If you didn’t read that book you should do. Here’s an idea of what the challenges are.

Unclutter The Mind

Now that you’re prepared to handle failure and embarrassment, it’s time to battle over thinking.

There are so many things to think about in golf. Golfers minds are busy trying to remember all things they’ve learned.

• “Hold the club lightly”
• “Keep your head down”
• “Make sure the left arm is straight”

The list is endless.

The best golfers in the world and even those at your local course are able to play in a free and clear mind. At most they have one or two thoughts in their head before they hit a shot.

However nothing and I mean nothing is in their mind during the swing. It’s free and clear of everything.

Successful coaches know that, so they don’t overload their students with too much information. But it’s what the student does outside of the lessons that hurt them.

You see, golfers read too many golf magazines and listen to every bit of advice a golfer who is better than gives them. The corresponding outcome is a cluttered mind.

Are you doing the same thing? How can you limit the amount of information you take in?

Playing golf with a free and clear mind is difficult but here’s a few ways to do it.

The Internet is loaded with content. According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt we produce as much content every two days as we did from the beginning of time up until 2003. You’re never going to be able to read it all. In fact if you’re trying to read everything you could harm yourself.

To begin you must kill the idea that you have to read everything. Leo Babauta has a great post on killing the anxiety of online reading. Doing so will prepare you for the next step.

From here find two or three experts who you admire. And listen to only them. Getting too many different opinions is great in theory but harmful. It can easily confuse you.

The last step is implementing a practice of either mediation, mindfulness or any other spiritual practice. Jonthan Fields has a great post 7 ways to hone attention where he talks about why doing this will help clear the mind and stay calm.

I’ve given you some good tips to help control the information you intact, but I want to suggest a post on my golf blog to help you on the course. Read my post on calming the metal chatter during the round to help you become more present and help stop you from overthinking.

Work Efficiently

Now that your mind is clear and you’ve prepared yourself for the difficult challenge ahead, it’s time to do the work. But you should focus on working efficiently.

Despite what Stanley Lee says in this post, I believe there are no shortcuts to becoming an expert at golf. That’s because it’s physical. Your body has to learn new movements. Then repeat them consistently. Along the way you have to master the mental aspects.

Don’t believe me?

Let’s look at athletes from other sports. They suffer at golf and I enjoy seeing this. Before you think I’m an ass, hear me out.

Super talented people aren’t above golf. Their talent can’t get them ahead. They’re just like everyone else.

Compare them to a complete golf newbie like Dan McLaughlin. He knows it takes time. His goal is to become a Professional golfer and play with the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. A lofty goal, trust me. But nothing is wrong with having lofty goals. After all, Tim Ferriss says there is less competition when you set out big goals.

The problem is Dan has no experience playing golf. So he’s taken the advice of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule from Outliers to heart.

Now you don’t have to spend 10,000 hours like Dan. All you have to do is put in the work efficiently and embrace the challenge.

Too many of my students were unwilling to commit to practicing for 3-5 hours a week outside of lessons. And they came to me wondering why they weren’t getting better. There is only so much I could do as a coach. The duty lies on the student to put in the effort and practice.

Now on the flip side, I had students who practiced a lot. But they didn’t practice with a clear purpose. They would go out and hit balls on the range with no targets or goals in site and aimlessly lashing away.

Their thought process is any practice is good practice. The truth is: not all practice is created equal.

I prefer my students to hit 30 balls on the range with a purpose than 100 with no purpose.

For some students they might get more out of playing a full round on the course than practice. In that case it’s better for them to do that. They’re more efficient that way.

Efficiency is your friend. Don’t put in loads of work and effort if it doesn’t yield profound results.

To summarize everything I’ve written you must:

• Prepare your mind for the difficult road to expertise
• Unclutter your mind and reduce how much information you intake
• Work efficiently towards becoming an expert

For the aspiring golfers I hope you enjoyed this post. For those that don’t play, I hope you got something out of this post anyway.

With that, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What mindset techniques or adjustments have worked for you? They can be non-golf related obviously because I believe that no matter what you’re trying become to expert in you can use the same techniques.

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Here’s the thing, millions of people navigated this field of land mines before. Some made it, while others failed. The great news is that many have shared their experience, which helps tremendously to light your way. Your business plan allows you to map out where the huge land mines that claim most victims are and navigate your way around them.

Writing a business plan doubles your chances of getting a loan and can increase your chances of securing investment or growing your business.

However, so many people make the same mistakes in their business plans, which hurt their success chances and frustrate potential investors. You need a good plan, but it doesn’t have to be perfect for you to start your business.

Here are some tips to keep in mind while building your business plan:

1. Cover the important stuff & get moving

Don’t wait until you have the perfect business plan. It will never be perfect. Cover the most important points that will let you to hit the ground running and overcome the biggest obstacles. You will add to it and evolve later (keep reading).

2. Include all essential parts

A business plan has three essential building blocks. There is the analysis (market, industry, competition), action plan (people, operations, sales & marketing), and projections (traction & financials). You and your investors will want to have a balanced coverage of all these parts to ensure your business does well. Here is a business plan template if you want more details.

3. Do your research and digest it

It’s simple… the more you understand your customers, business, and competitors, the better your success chances are. You can learn through research and actual interactions with customers. If you haven’t started your business yet, spend some time to learn as much as you can about your customers and how your industry works. It will save you a lot of time and trouble. Analyze and digest your research and keep the conclusion in your plan. Don’t expect your reader to figure out what the data means.

4. Learn from experience

After you start your company, the customer behavior and feedback will give you more information to integrate into your analysis and refine your strategy.

5. Laser focus

Make it super clear who your target customers are, what problem you will help them solve, and how you will solve it (what makes your solution great). You can refine, adjust, and/or expand that target after starting your company (see point 1).

6. Learn your industry

You need to know how your industry works (laws, business models, key suppliers, technology being used, etc). It is great if you already worked in the industry before, but you can also read books and do extra research to learn how things work in your industry. Quora is a great Q&A based social network where you can quickly learn about a topic. It’s where I start my research.

7. Know who else is serving your customers

Your customers have choices. They will choose to either go to you or others. Know how you stack up against competitors from the eyes of the customer (price, quality, service quality, etc). Don’t obsess over “beating the competition”. Know enough about them to differentiate yourself (i.e. so your customers pick you), but save your energy to focus on the customer.

8. Be specific in your action plan

Spell out what will be done (operations), who will do it (management and people), how much it will cost (financials), how you will get it to your customer (marketing). Pay special attention to the people part of the plan. It’s the most important thing investors look at when deciding to invest (or not) in your company.

Instead of saying “We will provide the best service to delight our customers”, say “To provide exceptional service, we will have a 24 hour response time policy to all inquiries and personalized follow-up for every new customer”.

9. Highlight your progress

Include any results you have so far (a prototype, subscribers, paying customers, growth). All this shows traction, which will validate your business idea. That will make investors more comfortable knowing there are tangible results.

10. Update the plan as you go

You will learn a lot after starting your business. Take time to reflect on your experience and improve your plan. Your business plan is a living thing that will adapt, and improve as it grows. Many assumptions you will make will be replaced by actual figures (e.g. % of visitors that will convert into customers). This will influence your action plan and projections.

11. Polish it

Once you have the content in your plan and its time to present it to investors and other outsiders, clean it up. Fix the spelling and grammar, remove parts you repeat yourself in, add figures and visuals (product samples/screenshots), add page numbers… you get the idea. If you’re not presenting it to anyone, then no need to polish it. Invest that time and energy into your business instead.

12. Breathe some life into it

The plan should reflect your personality. I’m not proposing you add circus lights and unnecessary fluff, but the reader should prefer to read it instead watching paint dry. Make it flow like a conversation and look to reflect whom you are.

13. List your assumptions

You will have plenty of assumptions in your plan (e.g. best marketing vehicles, how many visitors will convert to customers, how quickly you can hire the right people, etc). Think of assumptions as a hierarchy of three types:

a. The hunch you pull out of your head.

b. The educated guess backed by research and past experience.

c. The validated assumptions. These are based on actual experience (we set this price to x and sold this much). These are more solid.

Know what assumptions you’re making, list them, and revisit them often.

14. Make smart projections

Whatever you do, don’t make top-down projections (there are x number of customers in the world, if we get only 1% of them, we will make so much money). Instead, find out how many potential customers there are that are relevant to you. Find out how comparable businesses to yours are doing. Incorporate build-up into your plan (i.e. add customers in a step process vs. getting them all at once). Launch and adjust your projections based on actual results.

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Your turn: What lessons have you learned from creating business plans in the past? Let us know in the comments under this post.

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Nothing remarkable about the above scenario except that the musician is Joshua Bell, one of the world’s greatest classical musicians. And the whole setup is an experiment in context and frameworks conducted by the Washington Post.

None of the passersby except one recognized Bell that day. His total earnings: around $32, not including a $20 bill given by the only person who recognized him. To put this in context, Bell is a musician who draws $100 tickets for the inexpensive seats. At the very least, this experiment demonstrates the importance of context and frameworks to our creative process.

• What creativity structures, rituals and habits do you have in place to inspire your creative process and how do you place them in context?
• Do you believe that only a few people are blessed with the good fortune of frequent visits from the muses of inspiration?
• Do you believe that creativity is a process and a system that needs a nudge in the right direction to start flowing or should you wait for inspiration to strike?

Let us unlock the mysteries behind the creative process…

1. Belief, awareness, and persona of a creator

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” — Patanjali, The Yoga sutras

If you do not believe that you are creative, chances are that you will be discouraged to create anything of significance. This process is similar to stepping into a new role, a new power that always exists deep within you but something that you may have forgotten. If you want to be an artist, you need to feel and act like one.

We are all creative without exception. If you want to be a writer, you need to stop second guessing your work and start writing! The real question is: how much resistance do you have that hides and blocks the glitter of your creative genius?

In the movie from the classic books by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Lord Elrond advises Aragorn to give up the ranger and step into the role of the King and save middle earth from the dangers that had befallen it. He says to Aragorn, “Put aside the Ranger. Become who you were born to be.”  Lord Elrond also presents Aragorn with the re-forged sword of Anduril, a symbol of vast power and past glory.

The story from The Lord of the Rings is a powerful reminder to us to cast aside our previous conditioning and step into the role of a creator of our genius work.

Take one small action today that puts you outside of your zone of comfort. Begin with a small creative project that you have always wanted to complete and go through from start to finish even though you might be terrified of the result.

2.  The Target

Do you know where you would like to go in your creative process? If you can identify very clearly where you are at currently and where you would like to be at the end of your creative process, you create structural tension according to Robert Fritz in his wonderful book, The Path of Least Resistance.

According to Robert, structural tension has a tendency to move you towards completion of your work. I have experienced this structural aspect in my own creative process. If I was not within the confines of a creative tension framework, my creative focus was diffuse, and hence the manifestation and completion of my creative work was weak.

3. Creativity fostering Habits

Creativity is a process that needs a structure with different parts that fit together and woven along with the repeated effort and the unique style of the creative individual.

Framework:  What habits do you have in place that support your creative endeavor? Creativity is like a spontaneous experiment within the confines of a controlled framework. You need to establish first what the parameters are for your framework.

What are the rules and conditions of your framework? And what are the creative elements and aspects of your experiment? What are you trying to bring together or synthesize and what is the process or journey that you choose to take?

You need to be able to channel your creativity and your creative products into a meaningful framework where your work is recognized and supported. You want to make sure that you are not wasting your time on rush hour traffic with little engagement similar to Joshua Bell’s story above.

4. Creating the right mood to create

Some people create best in the morning while others create best in the evening. Do you write at a particular time everyday or have a ritual to get you into the creative mood? Prolific writer Anthony Trollope regularly rose at 5:30 am and wrote till 11 am and penned 46 novels in his career.

Do you create your best work with gentle music or do you prefer silence? You need to test what works for you and then implement it. Taking a walk in nature is a very effective way for some people to get their creativity flowing. Understanding your natural ebbs and flows are key to getting creative and staying creative.

Set up a creative space, a desk to write or a small studio area where you can escape into and unleash your creativity. It is similar to having running shoes and clothes ready that you can quickly put on and begin the ritual or practice of running. It is much more difficult to get out of the door if you need to find everything.

Create a space for the repeated and spontaneous expression of your creativity. Make it simple and functional. Whenever you look at your own creativity space, you will be inspired to create!

5. Set up the right tools to create

You are limited by the quality of tools that you use to create your work. If you have done any DIY home project, you know how frustrating it is to work around the limited availability of the right tools. Also, beyond the right tools, having high quality tools can make all the difference to your work.

Ask yourself if you have the right tools to do the creative work that you desire to accomplish. Research the field and understand the latest and the best tools others in your field are using. I usually use both electronic and non- electronic tools to capture ideas and express my creativity.

6. Eliminate or minimize distractions

Distractions can be a lot of fun or even essential while taking a break but if we check our social media messages and engage in other distractions so frequently that we are unable to focus on creativity, it may be time to reduce the distractions.

Single tasking is mindful, engaging and very satisfying. Doing just one task at a time heightens your chance of getting into a deep focused state of flow.

We have all entered into that amazing state of flow at some point of our lives. According to Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi from his wonderful book Flow:

“Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work is dissipated. We create ourselves by how we use this energy. Memories, thoughts and feelings are all shaped by how we use it. And it is an energy under control, to do with as we please; hence attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.”

7. Working in small intense chunks and taking short breaks

I find working in small intense bursts of 30 to 45 minutes very meaningful and productive. Between bursts of creative work, I take well-deserved breaks for small periods of time where I can recharge my creative batteries.

8. When the inspiration strikes, be ready

In Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk, she talks about her encounter with the extraordinary poet Ruth Stone who described the creative process as a poem thundering towards her and the only thing she could do was run to a paper and a pencil and collect it. If she did not get to the paper in time, the poem would barrel through her and move on to someone else.

Be ready with notepad and pen in hand when inspiration decides to pay you a visit. Have a method to capture the inspiration that comes to you and a system to meaningfully implement the ideas.

9. Inspire yourself with eclectic interests and by breaking assumptions

We all learn and understand information in different ways. Incorporating different styles of learning such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic may turn out to be of great benefit to our learning process.

Inspiration can arrive in many different eclectic forms and being open and receptive to ideas is a wonderful way to be creative after allowing the ideas to mix and brew in our minds.

In her book titled inGenius and her TED talk, Stanford creativity researcher Dr. Tina Seelig talks about how reframing ideas, connecting and combining different elements and ideas together and breaking assumptions are great ways to increase imagination. In an exercise to students to assess the value of trash, she has them combine contents of a trashcan into relevant pieces of work.

Students have come up with amazing pieces from the trash exercise such as a quilted sweater from old socks and a mural from yard waste.

10. Sleep, daydream, exercise & charge your creative batteries!

Amidst all the information about the creative process, a very important part of the puzzle often remains unanswered. The greatest masters of the arts understand very well that the gaps and the open spaces and the periods are often as important as the presence of the artistic expression.

White space is critical in a design, punctuations are essential in prose and periods of silence make or break a musical piece. The spaces or gaps between intense periods of creative activity are also critical for synthesis and to come back at the work with a new fresh perspective.

We need to recharge our creative batteries on an ongoing basis to prevent creative exhaustion. It means allowing the time to daydream and drift freely into the world of creative imagination.

Thomas Edison, one of the most prolific and highly creative minds used to frequently daydream and take power naps.

There is scientific research that shows how exercise enhances mood and creativity. Exercise is a great way to break the monotony of working for extended periods of time and get the creative juices flowing.

11. Release your creativity for the world to enjoy and relinquish attachment

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” ― Maya Angelou

Are you pushing the creative ante, taking risks and expanding your creative comfort zone?

All creative people have experienced the fear of rejection of their creative work. A lot of highly creative work gets tossed out with the premise that it is not good enough.

Ancient Indian wisdom teaches us that we should not hesitate to take action and do our very best work. But once that has been accomplished, we need to relinquish our attachment to the creative work.

If you are a farmer, you sow seeds and take care of your fields but the fruit of your action is beyond your complete control. If you obsess over the outcome of your work, it becomes just another distraction that prevents you from doing your best genius work.

There is much wisdom in letting go of attachment to the final outcome and allowing your creations to speak for themselves.

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What are the different parts of your creative process and how do you put them together in a meaningful framework?

Let us know in the comments below this post.

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We as a society have become increasingly obsessed with being “productive,” and it’s not hard to see why: who doesn’t want to get more done each day?

The problem is that the content in this hotly discussed topic often revolves around apps and “workhacks.” Downloading the latest productivity software isn’t the way to go, you have to start with what makes your brain tick if you really hope to overcome the barriers that stop you from being productive.

When it comes to expanding our expertise, is flow really desirable, or is discomfort actually a welcome “burden” that serves as an essential ingredient in getting better?

The Skill of Chessmasters

In my previous post on practicing like an expert, I discussed a variety of studies on Chess that are applicable to gaining expertise.

In his research on expertise, Anders Ericsson often cites the study by Djakow, Petrowski & Rudnki (1927) where the lead researchers and their colleagues made some startling claims on the word-class skills of Chessmasters and the concept of “domain specific” expertise.

According to their findings, the superiority of Chessmasters’ memory and their ability to choose brilliant moves was reliant on the pieces being in their “regular” positions, and didn’t carry over to other sorts of application.

In further research, it was found that not even IQ was a reliable indicator of the best chess players. Thus, it appears that Chessmasters are simply masters of chess, and not experts at some underlying skill that makes them good at chess.

Research by Chase & Simon (1973) on Perception in chess would conclude that:

Experts with extended experience acquire a larger number of more complex patterns and use these new patterns to store knowledge about which actions should be taken in similar situations.

In a nutshell: Experts are made out of experience, and even experts in a game as complicated as chess gain their BIGGEST advantage simply by knowing the game far better than you do.

The Science of Expertise

The above is interesting excerpt of information, but what does it have to do with the acquisition of new skills?

The connection can be made when we take a look at how these experts come to know their trade better than the average person. What you may not know is that Chessmasters often engage in “chess problems” for practice, where they are required to figure out the correct move from a situation already set-up on the board.

The object is to find a way to either win or force a creative draw in a very difficult situation on the chess board, often taken from past championship games.

This style of practice has some very close similarities to the research on “deliberate practice“, also conducted by Anders Ericsson and further popularized thanks to articles by Cal Newport.

One of Ericsson’s most famous papers, The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance, examines the role of deliberate practice and how it separates “elite” violinists from “great” violin players.

The study observed how violin students scheduled their daily practice sessions. The data showcased two distinct trends: those violinists who were simply “good” players tended to spread out their practice sessions throughout the day.

Conversely, the “elite” players had a tendency to:

…[consolidate] their work into two well-defined periods. When you plot the average time spent working versus the hours of the day for these players, there are two prominent peaks: one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

In fact, the more elite the player, the more pronounced the peaks. For the best of the best, there was essentially no deviation from a rigid two-sessions a day schedule.

A Real World Metaphor

The above descriptions of the apparent benefits of blocks of intense practice crossover quite well into another realm: that of drilling.

In athletics, drills and practice sessions are universal across all sports and play a significant role in turning an enthusiast into an athlete. While no one would totally discount the importance of natural ability, even legendary sports figures like Jerry Rice attribute their superior performance to diligent practice regiments.

When looked at in this light, it would appear that world-class creatives and world-class athletes have something in common: they are better at pushing their own boundaries through deliberate practice.

This is how many seem to achieve the paradoxical effect of “accomplishing more” with less time: instead of embracing “flow”, elite performers drill, spending plenty of time working on things that create discomfort (we’ll use a blanket statement and call these “weaknesses”) rather than spending too much time on what they already know.

A Video Guide on Application

Expertise (and especially creativity) are highly debated subjects, so I’d like to forewarn any of those quick to dismiss the individual studies above that implementation of their findings into your own life boils down to one thing: testing.

That being said, by examining the research above as is, we can point to 3 strategies that seem to be a recurring feature of deliberate practice and that are essential to eliminating the inherent dangers of “flow”…

1. Do what does not come easy: The key to deliberate practice is discomfort, and discomfort is generated by doing those tasks which are outside of your current abilities. In a description from an expert pianist, Cal Newport shares the views of a talented piano player, who states:

Strong pianists drill the most difficult parts of their music, rarely, if ever playing through their pieces in entirety.

When engaging in deliberate practice, repeating tasks which are too familiar and too comfortable can lead to the flow, the “opiate of expertise”, as it feels good to do things we are good at, but rarely helps us improve. Conversely, by avoiding flow and constantly approaching areas in our abilities where we have a known discomfort (the pianist above cites his weakness with “touch”), we can apply deliberate practice to actively improve with less time spent.

2. Manage energy to maintain productivity: Tony Schwartz (co-author of The Power of Full Engagement) often writes and speaks about energy management, but in this process he also tends to cite research on deliberate practice. For instance, Schwartz recommends intense sessions of 90 minutes followed by 15 minutes of rest, commonly citing the violinist study above (where the best students largely practiced for 90 minute sessions) and a Federal Aviation Administration study that demonstrated the negative impacts of fatigue on their cognitive ability and the importance of “scheduling” breaks in order to maintain intense alertness and effort.

According to Schwartz:

What they instinctively understood was the law of diminishing returns… There’s plenty of evidence that increased rest and renewal serve performance.

Better energy management allows for sustain sessions of intense practice, whereas many of us are normally inclined to simply slog away throughout the day, spreading our energy far too thin.

3. Avoid reactive behavior, work with an ideal in mind

I loved this quote from a pianist on Study Hacks:

Weak pianists make music a reactive task, not a creative task.

In performance, weak pianists try to reactively move away from mistakes, while strong pianists move towards a perfect mental image.

In a sense, deliberate practice is hard not only in application but also for our ego. It hurts to fail, so we are often reactive in our efforts to simply “not mess up”, rather than proactively pursuing an end goal with a relentless force.

It may sound cheesy to say, “Don’t be afraid to fail,” but from the way that the benefits of deliberate practice operate, failure is something that needs to become the norm rather than a thing to be avoided: we can’t practice in areas of discomfort without messing up quite often.

Your Turn

I now turn this discussion over to you…

As I’ve mentioned, the research in the areas of expertise and creativity are still highly debated, but I think there is something to be said for the consistent appearance of “deliberate practice” (or whatever term you prefer) in the regiments of highly skilled individuals.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

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Have you ever been in the position of teaching a topic that you have a lot of experience in to someone who is brand new to it?

If so – have you ever noticed your pupil looking at you with a facial expression like they’re a three-year-old trying to solve the Pythagorean Theorem? You know that look.

It’s like that thing your dog does when you talk to him where he stares you down and cocks his head to one side. He’s trying to understand, but it’s just not sinking in. As a teacher, it’s incredibly frustrating – and a colossal waste of time.

You’ve likely been on the other side of that scenario too. When you are the totally green noob learning something new from an expert. You’re excited and enthusiastic about learning a new subject or skill – and the teacher arrives. In a matter of minutes this egghead has reduced your confidence to rubble by spouting off volumes of statistics, and industry jargon in what might have just as well been in the Klingon language.

You feel stupid, deflated, and de-motivated.

It’s an all too common scenario, but one that is easily fixed.

The truth is that more often than not, it’s not an issue of a lousy teacher – or a student who is incapable of learning. The real problem is a perspective problem that I call Expertitis.

The Downside To Expert Status

There are a lot of benefits to being an expert, and there are more than a few downsides as well. One of the most common downsides is the naturally occurring condition Expertitis.

When you have spent years becoming an expert at every aspect of a subject, the basics become automatic for you. Through repetition, the basics become so deeply engrained in your mind that you don’t even think about them anymore. Instead, you focus your attention on the high level details that are more pertinent in your everyday expert world.

A Sports Analogy

For instance, let’s say you know absolutely nothing about American football, but you really want to learn. If you were to ask an 8 year veteran of the National Football League to explain it, you might come away with the impression that it’s way too complex to follow.

Why? Because a NFL veteran with that much expert knowledge of the game might want to talk to you about things like audibles, formation shifts, “Mike” linebackers, and cover two vs. man to man coverage. But you’re starting at ground zero and all you want to know is why the guy in the stripes threw that yellow rag at the big man in the blue helmet. You want to know why sometimes the team keeps running plays and other times they kick it away. Or why the guys on one side of the ball can grab people with their hands but the guys on the other side can’t.

That is Expertitis. There’s a huge experience gap there. And the natural human tendency is for neither party to recognize exactly how vast that gap really is.

There’s a reason I single out the expert in the name of the condition Expertitis.

Because the liability of recognizing and fixing the problem lies squarely on the shoulders of the expert.

Only the expert in this scenario has the ability to see both the beginner and the expert side and bring the two together so some real learning can take place.

How To Cure Expertitis

Since the expert knows both sides of the equation, it is up to them as the teacher to shake off Expertitis by intentionally shifting their perspective.

Whether the teaching takes place in a classroom, a boardroom, or on your blog, it’s vital that you avoid Expertitis, make a sincere connection with your audience, and establish your credibility as an authority on your subject.

Here are 10 Expertitis-curing principles every expert should keep in mind when teaching.

1: Don’t Try To Impress With Your Expertise

This is mainly an ego-driven issue. You don’t need to impress anyone. Let that go. If you find yourself in the position of teaching someone else, you are already in a position of authority. There’s no need to waste their time and yours by trying to prove it over and over again.

2: Remember Where You Started: Practice Empathy

Empathy is the ability not only to intellectually understand where someone else is coming from but to emotionally relate to their situation as well. Remember that you were once inexperienced, too. Reach back to the “old you” and remember how it felt to be starting from scratch. Teach to that person.

3: Start At The Beginning

When you’re teaching people who are less skilled than you, start at step 1 – not step 3, step 19, or step 57. Remember that because of your expertise, what seems simple or obvious to you is not necessarily simple or obvious to those who you’re trying to teach.

4: Remove Fear And Embarrassment

Early on you need to let your students know that it’s ok to be new. Tell them what your expectations are for them, sure. But you also need to let them know you want them to ask questions and ask for clarification if something doesn’t make sense. Inexperienced people tend to hold back questions for fear of looking stupid. Make sure they know you want their questions and you won’t think they’re stupid for asking.

5: Brevity Is Your Friend

This is a tough one for experts. When you know a lot about a topic that you’re passionate about, it’s easy to drone on and on about minutia and lose people’s attention in the process.

To keep students on track, focus on key concepts and direct them toward the details. Don’t jam too much into one lesson. Digestible bite-sized pieces are always better than information overload.

6: Use Common Words/Vocabulary

To reiterate point #1 – your position as a teacher is not your opportunity to display your amazing vocabulary. A real teacher’s goal is to connect – not impress. Use common words. Students will almost never stop you and say, “Umm, I don’t know what that word means. Can you define it?”

Don’t put them in that embarrassing situation. If you do use more complex words or industry jargon, define them without being asked to. It makes for much better learning.

7: Reiterate Important Points – Repetition

Repetition, repetition, repetition. Teach, summarize, reiterate. It’s as true in teaching as it is in advertising. It’s all about the number of impressions you make on people’s mind. If it’s important, say it again. And again.

8: Integrate Material For Different Learning Types

There are three primary types of learners: Auditory learners, visual learners, and kinesthetic (also called tactile) learners. Basically that means some people learn better hearing new information, some learn better seeing it, and some learn best when they can get their hands on it and manipulate it.

To get through to them all, integrate all three styles into your lessons. Include the written word, charts, or videos for the visual learners, lectures and audio recordings for auditory learners, and hands-on exercises for those kinesthetic learners. Incorporating all three styles will benefit all your students.

9: Ask Checking Questions

As you teach new people, stop often and ask for feedback. Say, “Is this all making sense so far? Do we need to review anything up to his point?” This serves two purposes: it’s a litmus test for you to evaluate yourself as well as your students and it encourages interaction.

10: Be Accessible & Approachable – Provide Support

“The lesson is over. Get out.” We’ve all had that teacher. That teacher sucked, right? Most likely a teacher with that attitude had a captive audience full of subordinates who had no choice but to put up with it.

That is not the case now, is it? This is the real world and people expect some sincere engagement from their experts. Make sure you provide it. Be there for your students after the lesson. Let them know you want to hear their questions and you sincerely want to help.

Only You Can Prevent Expertitis

Look at most text books, training materials, and even much of the educational material available online. Unfortunately, Expertitis is rampant.

Put these 10 principles in play when you are teaching new people and suddenly it will seem like you’ve stumbled into a nest of brilliant students. The real difference, of course, will be that you have become a much better teacher!

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Have you been on either end of the Expertitis experience? How do you learn best? What are your best tips for teaching others?

Share your thoughts in the comments section!

What you actually do matters much more than what you say you’re going to do. Anyone can talk a big game or over-promise, but the actual follow-through is what creates lasting success.

For the last 15 years, part of my unique selling proposition is that I do what I say I’m going to do for the people who hire me. People ask why I’m successful, and that’s my honest and simple answer. When I tell someone I’m going to do something, I do it (in the amount of time I say it’s going to take). Sometimes I do more, but never less.

Following through is much harder than it might seem, and that’s why people often fall short. Here’s how I make sure that I do what I say.

Never agree to or promise anything unless you are 100% sure you can do it

Saying “yes” is a contract. From telling someone you’ll call them for lunch next week to saying you’ll have a project finished in 3 days, anytime you agree to something, you’re asking someone to trust that you’ll do it.

Say “yes” only to things you are sure about — sure that you’ll make them happen and sure that it’s something you want to do. Half-assing something or not finishing a task is far worse than saying “no” upfront. Commit with complete conviction or don’t commit at all.

Say No (Often)

Telling someone upfront that you can’t or aren’t interested in doing something re-affirms your commitment to your current schedule and tasks. Saying “no” means you not only respect yourself; you respect the other person, because you can’t guarantee to finish or commit to what they want.

Have a Schedule

Anytime you say “yes” to something, put it in your calendar and set a reminder (or several). These reminders could involve anything from completing part of a client project on a certain day, to making an agreement with yourself to work out twice a week. Own your tasks to ensure they get done.

And remember that most things will take longer than you expect, so account for setbacks, other commitments and the fact that sometimes life in general will throw you off-course.

Don’t Make Excuses

Sometimes things happen that are beyond your control. From car accidents to computer crashes to family issues, life is unexpected. You can’t account for everything when you make a commitment, so if something forces you to break your promise, own it—even if it’s not your fault.

Don’t make excuses, just offer to make things right.

Be Honest

The truth isn’t always the nicest answer. It might not be what someone wants to hear. But if you’re not rude about it, in the long run, everyone is better off. Telling the truth makes life easier and much more productive. This especially includes being honest with yourself.

Sometimes the most unreasonable expectations are ones we put on ourselves.

Being “impeccable with your word” (via Don Miguel Ruiz) means you are being honest with others, and more importantly, with yourself. This is truly the secret to success and the most important thing I’ve learned in my life. You instantly become “that guy/gal” who people want to work with or have on their team. It may require you to think more carefully about your commitments, but in the long run, being honest makes you a trustworthy person who is valuable in just about every situation.

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What would you add to the list? How do you always make sure you’ll do what you say you’re going to do?

Let us know in the comments below this post.

“Two heads are better than one.” We’ve all heard that phrase before, and it is so very true when we’re talking about innovation and what it takes to deliver real, relevant ideas to the marketplace. Being confident enough to invite divergent perspectives into the conversation can yield powerful ideas.

Honest, open collaboration is a real catapult to reaching new heights when you make it an integral part of your development process. New ideas and innovations can affect, influence, or change various departments’ workloads, processes, or even focus. Invite these different areas of influence and expertise to be a part of the process, rather than let them remain people you need to “sell” your ideas to after the fact.

Innovation Through Collaboration

Ultimately, collaboration ensures that all areas of expertise are being considered in the formulation and execution of an idea. Here’s why your team will benefit:

• Your idea is enhanced by different motivations. It tethers back to what is important to each role inside the company and what success looks like within it. What motivates research and development (R&D) is not necessarily the same for sales or marketing. Success happens when these expert perspectives align and incorporate the consumer’s voice. When you can find a product solution that delivers on all fronts, you have a winning idea.
• Your process gets smoother. When each person with an area of influence is in the room and engaged, there are far fewer delays in moving the idea through to testing. In a typical Stage-Gate Process, a department can stall or kill an idea at any phase. But when the discussion happens in “real time,” the idea can become reality much more quickly.

Finding Cross-Functional Collaboration Success

Creating and supporting an environment where leaders from sales, marketing, R&D, and operations are open to new ideas, can provide constructive feedback, and will work to bring viable ideas to fruition can be a difficult task. Here’s how to make collaboration a reality for your idea:

• Select a shepherd. I recommend engaging a third-party expert from the outside to facilitate (and participate in) the conversation. The interpersonal and multi-dimensional dynamics presented during a cross-functional collaboration are very complex. When harnessed properly, this complexity can make a session go extremely well or, conversely, horribly wrong. Choose your session shepherd wisely, and trust her to keep the energy and productivity moving in a positive direction.
• Get influencers involved early. When it comes to collaboration, sooner is better. I encourage my clients to engage in the conversation from the start. The simple truth is this: If I’m not involved in what you analyzed and, ultimately, what you discovered, I won’t get behind your rationale and approach. Choose your cross-functional team early, and get them committed for the entire process. 

The Results of Engagement

When multiple departments and leaders from throughout the organization aren’t involved from the beginning, ideas will be deprioritized or even discarded. A client we have worked with for more than 10 years refuses to engage the organization across all its key areas of influence. Over the years, we have generated thousands of ideas, many of which could have been category-changing. But without the effort and collaboration of the leadership team, not one has made it into the marketplace.

However, another client has taken our advice and brought together 21 individuals from throughout the company, including leadership and key team members from sales, marketing, insights, production, logistics, legal, and R&D. The success of their very first innovation session included 12 new products being launched within a year. Success at this speed was unprecedented in their category, and, as a result, has launched this client to category captain status with several of their national retail customers.

Finding the Difference

If you’ve ever heard our insights directors speak at a conference, you’re likely to hear them say, “Before it’s a great dish or menu item, it’s a great idea.” That’s because we believe there is a distinct difference between true innovation, product development, and simple line extensions.

All require answering the strategic question, “Are we pursuing this idea because we can, or because we should?”

Embrace the idea of collaboration and get influencers involved as early as you can. Remember, when all the driving areas of influence are invited into the conversation, good things can happen.

This is the life of the six-figure expert.

It could be your life, and the life of countless others, but there’s a problem.

Over time, you’ve become surrounded by powerful myths that keep you from turning your knowledge and know-how into a rewarding business.

Today we’re going to knock down 5 of the most powerful myths, and reveal the truth: if you have valuable information to share, you can build a business around that expertise.

Myth #1: Your Topic Must be Original

Years ago I worked for a boss whose mind was packed with brilliant advice on managing employees. The staff adored him. More important, they were great at their jobs. He had always dreamed of writing a book, so I suggested that he use management as his topic. “That would be a dream, but it’s already been done.” These simple words have kept many from following their passion.

The Truth: I built my first six-figure business in personal development, one of the most crowded fields on earth. I wasn’t a known name, didn’t have a specific niche, and didn’t have a unique angle. Despite all this, I succeeded. Here’s why…

• People don’t buy into the topic—they buy into the person. You are unique. Even when you’re working in a crowded field, people will weave through that crowd to connect with you.

• People buy more than one. I have dozens and dozens of books on marketing—not one. Comedy lovers watch dozens and dozens of funny movies—not one. When people are interested in something, they don’t buy one item from the spread of options and call it quits. They buy dozens. There’s a reason thousands of love stories have been written and sold.

• The last thing you want is an unproven market. You want to know people are selling information similar to yours and that other people are buying it. Oftentimes, being “one and only” in the market is a sure sign of impending doom.

Myth #2: You Must be the Best

I overheard a friend talking about her job one day. It turned out she worked for a small book publisher. It was news to me, and, being obsessed with turning expertise into online business, I immediately asked about it. With so many people baffled by the publishing process, I thought she could offer value to the market and maybe even create a small consulting gig on the side. “I’m no expert,” she said. Once again, seemingly simple words that have sent countless dreams to an early grave.

The Truth: You know far more than you think you do. I happily paid my friend $100 to talk with me for an hour about what she did. As I expected, this “non-expert” had incredible information to share. She dove into the industry, telling me things I never would have known, and gave me tips on submitting a winning book proposal—absolute gold for any would-be authors. She was an expert, without question, but couldn’t see it. If you’re struggled with the same doubts, consider this…

• When you’re deep into a subject, you forget that the rest of the world isn’t even dipping their toes. What seems obvious to you—because you’ve learned it so thoroughly and so long ago—is brand new to 99.9% of the people around you. My friend assumed everyone knew the proper way to submit a manuscript. She was wrong.

• People want results. If you can deliver, you’re all the expert they need. You don’t have to invest twenty years in a subject or earn certificates or degrees. Getting the result, in the end, is all that matters.

• Look around at the most popular articles, books, videos, and podcasts. More often than not, they’re packed with simple tips and ideas, not complex systems and in-depth strategy. The people looking for help are usually beginners. As such, they don’t want complicated solutions; they want easy-to-understand ideas they can use right now. Chances are you already have more than enough to offer.

Myth #3: You Must Have Money

With the high-powered tech driving today’s web, it’s understandable that people assume it costs a lot of money; the same is true with the high-quality media. A website that broadcasts to millions of email addresses, produces HD videos and professional podcasts, streams live trainings, and sells books, CDs, DVDs, and multi-media courses sounds like a website with deep pockets. Years ago this might have been true. Not anymore.

The Truth: I started my first company with $35. When I reached six figures, the bills ballooned to… $300 a month. This is the miracle and the joy of 21st century online business. With all of the available tools and platforms, you can actually run a successful business online for free. What would have cost tens of thousands of dollars to accomplish can now be done with a few clicks. Money is no longer an issue.

• Platforms such as WordPress.com (not WordPress.org), Tumblr.com, and Blogger.com let you launch your website free of charge. Wily entrepreneurs could even run a business directly on Facebook.com. However, to get the full benefits of a website without any of the drawbacks, a self-hosted domain is the way to go. Blue Host offers hosting for fees as low as $4.95 per month.

• When it comes to keeping in touch with your audience, Feedburner.com handles it all, free of charge. For more control and options, Mail Chimp is currently free up to 2,000 subscribers, beyond which you pay a small monthly fee. Additional, though more expensive, options include AWeber (the service I use), Constant Contact, GetResponse, and iContact among many others.

• Delivering products and services could not be easier or more affordable. You can run a massively profitable coaching business via free tools such as Skype, Facebook, and Gmail. Using free online converters, you can turn a report, book, or course into a ready-to-sell PDF in minutes; if you’re just beginning, skip the shopping cart software and simply email the file to customers (exactly how I ran my business for the first few years). Worried about accepting payment? For a small fee, ClickBank or PayPal have you covered.

Myth #4: You Must Be a Techie

The Internet and advancing technology go hand in hand. You see a website, with its widgets and pop ups and sign ups oh my, and instantly feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the tech running the show. There appears to be SO much going on, so much to figure out. To succeed online, the myth goes, you have to tech savvy.

The Truth: If you can click a button, you can have a website up and running in five minutes. Platforms such as Squarespace and Elance and oDesk are just two of the many services online that allow you to find and hire affordable freelancers to do everything from designing your website to launching your first video.

• Mistakes online are often cheap, so if you’re not sure how to do something, do it anyway. You’ll learn far more and far faster by diving in and trying than by mentally stressing over exactly how it should be done. Get your hands dirty.

Myth #5: You Must Get Permission

A lawyer passes the bar and is given permission to practice law. A broker passes the Series 7 and is given permission to sell securities. A 16-year-old passes his driving test and is given permission to terrify drivers throughout his town. Time and again, people are given clear and observable permission to do the things they set out to do. Not so with experts.

In most cases, we have to give permission to ourselves. We have to stand tall, proclaim our expertise, and plant our flag—without any outside body giving us the nod. We can’t point to a framed certificate on the wall to defend our choices. We can’t add letters to our name to gain immediate credibility. We can’t hide.

This is a scary proposition and demands thick skin and true guts, which is why so many hopeful experts are still waiting. Waiting for someone or something to give them permission to charge ahead.

The Truth: You don’t need permission. If you can deliver on your promise of value to your visitor, reader, customer, or client, you have all the permission you need. Stop waiting. Stop learning “just one more thing.” Start now, where you are with what you know and what you have.

If you can’t start without it, I hereby grant you permission to share your expertise with the world. Go.

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I used to say things like that.  I kept promising myself that I would write a book someday.  Then I realized something important.

There are seven days in a week, but someday isn’t one of them.

Do It Now

I’ve had several friends who have told me they want to write a novel.  They have the idea for the book, but like so many experts say, “without action, an idea is nothing.”

The best advice I ever got from another writer was this:  put your butt in the chair.  It seems so simple.  It isn’t.

Stephen King said, “The scariest moment is just before you start.”  

Making yourself sit down and start typing is something I fight with daily, even after having written two full-length novels.  It is a battle you have to fight against procrastination and something I call internal attrition.  That attrition makes you want to do anything other than sit down and write.  Like Marcellus Wallace said in Pulp Fiction, “you gotta fight through that.”

Just put your butt in the chair and start working.

Finding Time

The most common excuse I hear is “I don’t have time.”  People tell me they are too busy, or have kids, or their job gets in the way.  They say they don’t have any spare time to write a book.  I respectfully disagree.

I wrote my first two novels by finding fifteen minutes, three times each day.  

Jeff Goins said, “Spending five hours on a Saturday writing isn’t nearly as valuable as writing thirty minutes every day of the week.”  So, don’t put it off until the weekend.

Kimanzi Constable told me when he was writing his first books the best strategy was to get his writing done in short, manageable chunks of time.  For those of us with busy lives, it’s the best way to write a book.  Here’s how I did it.

In the morning, I woke up fifteen minutes early.  I’m not going to lie, that part sucked in the beginning.  I love the snooze button.  But what is more important, getting fifteen minutes of semi-sleep or having your own book?  Get up fifteen minutes early and start working.

Eventually, you will get used to it.  In fact, now I find that I can’t sleep that fifteen minutes because I feel internal pressure to get up and start writing.

Lunch breaks are now work breaks.  Again, do you want to sit around and listen to people talk about American Idol or do you want to get another few hundred words done for your book?  Eat for fifteen minutes then lock your door/cubicle and write.  Go somewhere quiet if you need to.  You need to be free of distractions to get the most out of your little chunk of time.

Find fifteen minutes in the evening.  Sometimes this one can be more difficult, but trust me, it’s there.  How much time do you waste on Facebook or random television?  Take an inventory of a few typical evenings and you will find that there are lots of places where spare time is living.  Use that time to write your book.

The more you do it, the faster you will be able to write.  I can crank out about 1,000 words in 45 minutes if I have my story organized and planned out.

Getting Started

Write out the general idea of your book.  This is a simple paragraph on what the book is about.  It’s good to have it on paper as a broad guide.

Next, I create an outline.  Guy Kawasaki says he doesn’t begin writing until the outline is complete.  Instead of a traditional outline, I create something I call a “scene map.”  With this map, I know where the end of the story is.  All I have to do is string together a bunch of scenes to get there.

If you are creating fiction, you will have to do some additional work creating characters.  Unless you are writing War and Peace, this should only take a page or two of paper.  Just write down the names of your characters, what they look like, hobbies, quirks, and anything you think the readers should know about them.

Set Small Time Goals

Lots of writers have daily word count goals.  I’m at the point where I use those, too.  When you are writing a book in your spare time, though, I suggest using a different approach.

Since you are going to be finding fifteen minute pockets, set a timer for your allotted time and write.  Don’t worry about how many words you’ve completed.  Just work as fast as you can.  Remember, don’t edit at this point.  Fight the urge to go back and make corrections.  Editing can come later.  If something is misspelled, you can always come back to it during the re-write.

Go

You have the time and the knowhow.  Don’t worry yourself with questions about publishing or distribution right now.  That stuff can come later.  What you need to do is start writing.  Stop telling yourself that you will do it someday.  This is the year that you can write your book.  And you can do it in your spare time.

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During my recent TEDx talk, I told one of my favorite stories: how I recently had dinner with my very favorite author.

It was one of the most fun parts of my time on stage. As I told the audience my story, I laughed at how ridiculous I sounded.

Here’s how it happened:

In March when I first met my favorite author, Julien Smith, I was a nervous wreck and very possibly blushing bright red. Nonetheless, I gathered my strength, walked right up to him, and extended my (shaking) hand. We ended up having an awesome conversation, and I walked off confident and happy.

Months later, we exchanged emails and planned to have dinner in my hometown. It was a relaxing time, but I never imagined that my husband would bond with him, that his girlfriend would become a new friend, and I’d end up driving them home in the pouring rain.

As I told the story onstage at TEDxManagua, I told the audience how I sat in the car ride home, remembering how nervous I had been when I met him. I asked myself: “Is this real life?!”

I recently read something that made complete sense of my encounter. In Dr. Brene Brown’s new book Daring Greatly (which I recommend fervently), I read a line that floored me. She writes:

“Courage is contagious.”

A simple concept, but it packs a strong punch.

I could have cowered away and never made a friendly approach. Blushing as I was, it proved to be well worth it. When I eventually sat down to dinner with him, his girlfriend, and my husband, I ended up learning that much more about courageousness.

Connecting With Peers + An Action Plan

1. Contribute Value — Mutually

I realize that most people who talk about finding mentors or connecting with influential people always mention creating value for the “target person”, but I find that it’s incredibly useful to simply pinpoint what kind of value you need, too.

Letting someone help out (and telling them exactly how to do that) can result in a longer lasting relationship. For example, if I share what I’m up to, and ask for some feedback, I’m much more likely to get the help I am seeking. I am also now one step closer to offering my help in any future projects that come up.

2. Be Vulnerable and Courageous

As Dr. Brene Brown shares in her book, being vulnerable doesn’t equal being weak. Being honest and open is a great way to create a connection more quickly than being formal and reserved. If I hadn’t been blushing and borderline stuttering when I first walked up to introduce myself, I doubt I would have made such an honest connection.

Sure, I looked kind of silly, but if that’s my true self, why hide it? It worked, didn’t it?

3. Follow-Up With Caring & Friendliness

What works best for me is avoiding any kind of transactional thinking. I don’t approach peers and influential people with the thought of what I can gain from the relationship.

Instead, I approach it from a place of learning and inspiration. Most of the instances where I reach out to people who inspire me (and they are usually super intimidating), I try to follow up with friendly conversation. That means only business talk if it’s incredibly relevant — because business talk isn’t as fun and won’t lead to as close a connection.

Following up doesn’t come easy because it’s not necessarily natural. I don’t follow up with friends after a coffee or lunch date, but friends aren’t exactly the same, are they? I think about it as staying in the loop, not truly following up as you would on a job interview.

***

No matter what anyone says, I believe it’s not easy to be yourself. It takes courage and vulnerability (Dr. Brene Brown’s specialty) to create long-lasting, true connection with a person. No matter how famous, how learned, or how prestigious the person is.

It wasn’t easy to walk up to a New York Times best-selling author and introduce myself, but it worked.

It wasn’t easy to stand on the TEDxManagua stage and talk about my embarrassing moments, but it worked.

Next time you want to meet amazing people, be yourself. It’ll work — trust me.

Everyone knows that to get great at something you have you practice.

“Put in the time.”
“10,000 hours.”
“Perfect practice makes perfect.”

That topic is sexy to talk about. We hear about the dedication, energy, and effort that people put into become the best at something and we want to do that too.

We all want to be experts, but we also want to get there as fast as possible. I’m not talking about shortcuts, I’m just talking about taking a direct path to your goal of becoming a leader in your field.

But what are the two best ways to do that? I’ll tell you.

To Become the Best, Learn from the Best

Unless you are trying to do something that no has EVER done or attempted before, there are people that you can learn from.

And to that note, there probably isn’t a lack of people trying to get you to pay them to teach you how to learn.

One of the hardest parts of becoming an expert is knowing who to trust and who to learn from. You don’t take advice from strangers on the street (I hope), so why do you do it online?

Take the time to really figure out who the top 10 experts in your field are, see what they offer in terms of training (paid, free, one-on-one, etc.), and make an investment into your future.

Almost no one baulks at dropping $50,000 to $100,000 for college and taking decades to pay it back, but how much have you spent on educating yourself since then?

Invest. In. Learning.

To Get to the Top, Help Others Up First

The third piece of the expert equation besides learning and doing is surrounding yourself with amazing people. Not just so that they will help you get to the top, but so that you can help THEM get to the top too.

Two of my favorite quotes about this theory are:

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie

Read those again. They are powerful lessons.

1. Surround yourself with awesome people.
2. Focus on what they need, not what you need.

If you are doing work online, travelling the world, or even just working from home it can be hard to find “your tribe”. You probably just have a combination of the bloggers you read and people you’re friends with on social media and call it good.

But if you want to really take it to the next level you need more interactions, more connections, and more accountability.

Find a mastermind group, join a community or forum (like Fizzle’s), and become the leader in what you want to be known for.

Helping people is the fastest way to the top. (tweet this)

***

Fizzle: Honest Video Training for Online Business Builders

If you are looking for honest online business training and a community of like-minded, non-sleazy, and passionate entrepreneurs, we would love if you joined us today in Fizzle.

WHAT YOU’LL GET AS A FIZZLE MEMBER:

• Instant access to our current training library including 127 lessons in 19 courses (over 20 hours of video training), and all future course releases
• A front row seat in the Fizzle Community Forums, which include course discussions, monthly challenges, support, accountability, conversation, personalized help and more. This community is… amazing. People are making big moves in their lives and businesses
• An invitation to our upcoming “office hours” sessions where you’ll be able to talk to the Fizzle team live (for “deluxe” package members)
• Chase, Caleb and I will be right there, listening to your feedback, answering your questions and encouraging your success

It costs less each month than your cell phone bill and has the power to change your business, career, and life.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in, I hope to see you inside Fizzle.

Cheers,
Caleb Wojcik

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As adults, most of us tend to grow up moulded and shaped by our external surroundings without being aware of it. In fact, as we reach adulthood, we will typically reflect back on our childhood and start to wonder how children are actually able to stay happy in a state of hardship.

Of course, the logical answer to this would be through parental protection and censorship from the outside world and that the reason why all of us are forced to grow up is due to the idea that we’re now responsible and can see the world in a higher and mature context.

It’s a common misconception.

Lets pose the following question…

What if the world never actually changed and that the only thing that did was our influence?

The Problem

The issue with maturity and wisdom is that we’re often bombarded with outside information which ultimately influences our decisions and what we believe our true potential is.

We’re also often fooled into thinking that the things we learn are ‘matter of facts’ which can’t be broken.

We can also go a stage further and think changing can potentially cause a threat to your peers who may have up until that point, found it comfortable to see you in a certain way and refuse to see you grow.

The Dilemma

While it’s simple to want to embark on a new challenge in order to grow, the potential pitfalls may simply be far too challenging or vast for anyone to follow due to external consequences and the fear of disapproval, which will ultimately put you back in your box.

So the issue here isn’t really in a person’s willingness to stretch themselves and reach true expert status, but in their apprehension in being judged by the outside world.

The Box

What is the box? The best way to explain this is to use examples.

Lets suppose you made a big decision to go traveling but due to family values, your family objects because they worry about you traveling to a foreign country alone.

Or you’re at a dinner table in a discussion and suddenly, you speak up with a disagreement that causes a heated debate between you and your friends/family who ultimately disagree with you.

How would you feel in those situations?

It’s definitely a tough place to be in and is what commonly makes the path to change difficult.

The Solution

The biggest challenges often require big mental shifts in order to take the first grand step to growth and to ultimately find happiness.

It also requires complete self-confidence and a rock solid self-esteem in order to push forward despite the external challenges along the way.

In order to do this, we have to take a step back and analyse our current beliefs by asking ourselves the following questions…

1) What are my personal beliefs in comparison to others?

It’s likely that you may have a belief system that differs from others, which is absolutely fine. But you may feel afraid of expressing it due to fear. It’s important that you address this since fear of change isn’t really the issue, but the fear of your loved ones or your authorities not being there to support you while you are on your journey.

2) Are my beliefs more important than the people around me? If not, why not?

The reality of it is, all of us have a personal journey that is unique from others. The key to expressing this is in understanding that no one can ever truly know what’s good for you besides you. So it makes complete sense to believe in yourself with full conviction. Even if it means rejecting and disagreeing with others around you.

3) What should I do if i’m being given a hard time?

As a species, what makes us unique over other animals is in our ability to adapt within our surroundings. Therefore, as harsh as it may be, it may sometimes be necessary to find a new surrounding that is more aligned with your purpose. Maybe you need to make new friends with similar ambitions, attend seminars, join groups, or move locations. You really have more control than you think.

I truly believe that becoming an expert builds self-confidence and potential, but becoming an expert with yourself and knowing what you want is crucial. It paves your road map and gives you the courage to take action, which is what all of us are really looking for.

In my free YOU 2.0 course, I break this all down into a series of 7 short and concise videos which takes you on a step by step process from defining powerful beliefs to overcoming fear. Feel free to check it out.

***

What’s holding you back from your true potential? What will you do in 2013 to change that? Let us know in the comments below this post.

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“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” -Howard Thurman

Why do some people love their work, while the vast majority dread getting up every morning?

Is it our decisions? Our upbringings? Luck? Something else?

Surveys show that half or more of Americans are unhappy with their jobs. Why do so many of us spend the majority of our waking hours doing work we’re unsatisfied with?

That’s precisely the question my good friend Scott Dinsmore has dedicated his life to answering. He has worked with and surveyed hundreds of people to understand exactly what it takes to do work you love. The answers he’s come up with are surprising but simple.

If you’re not familiar with Scott Dinsmore’s work yet, I’m ecstatic to be the first to tell you about it. There isn’t anyone on the planet as passionate about helping people find and do work they love as Scott is.

When you listen to Scott’s story and hear about the people he’s helped, it’s hard not to get fired up. Deciding to pursue work you love is such an important and life-changing decision. We should get fired up about it.

I made the decision to follow my dreams and do work I love back in 2005, and life has been an exciting adventure ever since. It’s not always easy by any means, but there is no way I would ever go back to living a scripted life, no matter how big a challenge it is to take this path. The challenge is actually a big part of why following your dreams is so much fun.

The Passionate Work Framework & The 3 Pillars that Make it Possible

So what exactly does it take to find your passion and build a career around it? Through Scott’s work at Live Your Legend (his site is visited by over 40,000 people per month), he has identified three steps to making passionate work possible:

1. Knowing Yourself & Self-Experimentation

   You must know who you are, what you’re good at, what values you hold highest, what you enjoy doing and what you absolutely hate.

   This is not something you learn in a book. You extract it from your life experiences. The more experiences the better. When in doubt, keep learning and experimenting.

   The best way to learn about yourself is through the art of micro-experiments and rapid self-learning.

2. Doing the Impossible

   Most people don’t believe it’s possible to have a passionate career. In fact, society trains us that a lot of unbelievably fulfilling things can’t be done.

   Showing yourself you can do things you used to write off as impossible has a confidence-compounding effect on our life like no other. You can then apply that on a larger and larger scale.

3. Surrounding Yourself with Passionate People

   The fastest way to do the impossible is to start hanging around people already doing it. Simple as that.

   If you don’t have supportive people around you – you know, people who really understand you and who you want to become, then change is all but impossible.

   Scott is actively building a community of passionate people, all doing the work, sharing ideas, and building momentum for real change.

Why This Is So Urgent

I’m telling you all this for two reasons. First, I truly believe there is no more impactful way to change your life than by pursuing work you love. Just imagine how much happier and productive the world could be if everyone did something they loved for a living.

Second, Scott has developed this framework into a full course called Live Off Your Passion that is available at a special price until the end of the year. Now is the perfect time to invest in yourself by following Scott’s exact repeatable process and proven framework for finding your passions, choosing the most lucrative option and building a career around doing work that genuinely excites you…

Scott first released Live Off Your Passion about a year ago, and it was quickly named the top personal development course of 2011. Since then, he has updated the course twice already, and over 1,000 people have used the framework to discover and leverage their own unique career passions.

On January 1st, the price of the course will be going up by $70. It will still be a fantastic deal at the new price, but right now, I think it’s a steal.

The course is fully guaranteed. If you don’t discover your own marketable passion after taking the course, you can get a full refund anytime.

Click here to purchase Live Off Your Passion before the price increase

My Special Bonus to You

If you purchase Live Off Your Passion through the links on this page, we’ll earn a commission. As a special “thank you” for your purchase, we’re going to give you a special bonus.

For the past year or so, I’ve been working hard with a talented team to develop an entirely new video training library for online business builders. It’s called Fizzle, and we’ll be opening to the public in January.

Fizzle is a central training platform for serious online entrepreneurs to learn what works, what doesn’t, and how to do it. It’s the perfect accompaniment to Scott’s Live Off Your Passion course for people who know there will be an online component to what you do for a living. We sold out nearly 400 charter member spots earlier this year and the early reviews have been glowing.

Here’s our special offer: if you purchase Scott’s course by the end of the year (January 1st), we’ll give you a full free 30-day deluxe membership in Fizzle (a $49 value) that you can start anytime.

Just email us at support@expertenough.com with your receipt number, and we’ll set you up with the Fizzle membership.

Whatever You Decide…

Whether you decide to check Scott’s course out or not, I would love you to give serious consideration to pursuing work you really love in 2013. There is no better way to live a truly incredible life.

If you’re not totally on board with how important it is to do work you care about, check out this talk Scott gave at a packed TEDx event in San Francisco recently. There’s a reason this talk has been watched by over 100k people in just over two weeks:

(click here to watch the video if you’re reading this via email)

After you watch the talk, I’d love to hear from you below. Tell me in the comments what you think has been holding you back from doing work you love.

Have you experienced this before?  You’re eating right and going to the gym, and maybe you’ve even lost a few pounds, but overall your weight loss has stalled and you’re still feeling sluggish, bloated, and frustrated.

This is an all-too common scenario.  We all know that diet and exercise are necessary to lose weight, but the finer details of nutrition and working out can be shrouded in myth and mystery.

Let’s shed some light on the realities of diet and exercise by revealing 10 myths about losing weight.

1. If foods are “healthy”, then you can eat all that you want.

I’m not writing this post to debate which is the “best” diet, let’s just assume that you are sticking to a nutrition plan of whole natural foods and avoiding any processed junk that comes in a colorful box or wrapper. But here’s the thing, even healthy natural foods can be eaten in excess.

The basic math of having to consume less calories than you expend still applies for weight loss even if you are keeping your food shopping limited to the perimeter of the grocery store.  That being said, counting calories can be a drag.  Instead, try the following portion-size guidelines to help keep your diet on track without counting calories:

Animal protein sources such as steak, chicken, pork, and fish:  Keep your portion roughly equal to the size and thickness of your hand, not including the fingers and thumb.  This amounts to about 3 – 6 ounces for most people.

Nuts: Walnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, and Brazil nuts can all be nutritious snacks but they are also calorically dense.  Keep the portion size to what fits in the center of your palm without overlapping.  As an example, this is about 6 – 8 almonds for most people.

Vegetables:  For your green vegetables such as spinach, kale, broccoli, and asparagus proceed with reckless abandon and eat all that you like.  Great sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, vegetables in general do not need to be restricted.  Now there are a few exceptions to the general rule… carrots, pumpkin, and some of the other more “starchy” vegetables can hinder weight loss when eaten in large portions. Potatoes are a whole different story that will be addressed below.

Starchy foods such as rice and potatoes:  If you are going to eat carbohydrate-dense foods such as rice and potatoes, keep the portion to the size of your tightly clenched fist.  Other high-carb foods should also follow this rule (or be avoided entirely) such as cereal, pasta, beans, and corn.

Fruit:  Fruit can be a tricky one.  I typically recommend limiting fruit to 2 pieces per day or less due to the high sugar content (albiet natural sugar).  Berries and grapefruit are the best choices in my experience.  The “sweeter” fruits such as mango and pineapple have the greatest propensity to hinder weight loss and should be kept to a minimum.

2. Crunches and sit ups will help you lose fat around your abs.

If you really want to see your abs, it is purely a function of reducing body fat.  And reducing body fat is done primarily with diet.   You can punish yourself with thousands of repetitions of ab exercises and you still won’t see even the hint of a six-pack unless you reduce your overall body fat.

If you want the best exercise for six-pack abs, try pushing yourself away from the dinner table.

3. You have to eat every 3 or 4 hours to “stoke your metabolism”.

Many people have heard that you should eat 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day to “stoke your metabolism”.  As demonstrated by a German study, eating several small meals throughout the day does not affect resting energy expenditure.

In the study, subjects were given either one meal per day or 5 meals per day resulting in the same total number of daily calories.  The study found that the meal frequency did not influence the energy balance of the subjects.

Instead of worrying about trying to eat every few hours, focus on a feeding schedule that you will stick to consistently regardless of the number of meals per day.

4. Sleep is for the weak.

Sleep is crucial for repair and optimum function – it is also crucial for losing fat.  In a study by the University of Chicago, researches found that sleep-deprived subjects had a 55% reduction in fat loss when compared to those getting adequate sleep.

Lack of sleep was also linked to a higher level of the hormone ghrelin.  Higher ghrelin levels have been shown to reduce energy expenditure, stimulate hunger and food intake, and promote retention of fat.

When you are on a quest for weight loss, be sure to get your shut-eye.

5.  You need a low fat diet to lose fat.

Many foods that are high in fat are great additions to your weight loss nutrition plan.  Foods such as walnuts, almonds, avocado, coconut oil, and extra virgin olive oil are all high in fat but do not need to be avoided to lose weight.

It is the foods containing trans fats that you want to avoid such as chips, crackers, cookies, cakes and other prepackaged foods.

6. Lifting weights will make you gain weight.

People may wrongly assume that lifting weights will make them “bulk up”.  This myth comes from the fact that muscle is denser than fat.

When combined with proper diet, free weight training can lead to a shift in body composition of less fat and more muscle.  But as the body-fat percentage goes down, the weight on the scale will also go down for most people, even when building muscle.

This trend will continue until you hit a relatively low body fat percentage.

7. You can do it on your own.

The real “elephant in the room” that no one wants to talk about when it comes to losing weight is that diet and exercise are not the real issues.  The real issue when it comes to weight loss is habit creation.  There are several components to habit creation, but two of the most important are external support and accountability.

Try to find friends, family members, or a training partner that will provide support and encouragement for your weigh loss efforts.  And if you can’t find support from someone you already know, there are plenty of free online forums full of people trying to make positive health and diet changes (my favorite is from Nerd Fitness).

Also, be sure to set up some accountability if you do not follow through on your diet and exercise plan.  Make a bet with a friend or family member that if you miss a workout or cheat on your diet that you will give them $50, clean the kitty litter for a month, or something else that you find more “painful” than straying from your plan.  If you’ve tried over and over again to lose weight on your own without success, maybe it’s time to call in the reinforcements.

8. You can out-train a crappy diet.

I know we would all love to be able to erase the ill effects of a large pizza and a six-pack of beer with an intense workout, but it just doesn’t work that way.  Diet is hands down the most important component of weight loss success.

I’ll go as far as saying that as long as the diet is dialed in, nearly any fitness protocol can work for fat loss.

Forget about killing yourself in the gym as penance for that weekend binge – instead get back on track and focus on your diet.

9. You have to do a certain type of exercise.

I absolutely have my preferred methods of training for weight loss.  I’ve found that a combination of heavy strength training with high intensity interval training yields excellent fat loss results.

But is it the only way? Or even the best way?

The best way to exercise for weight loss is the way that you will do on a consistent basis.

Instead of worrying about the perfect workout, find an activity that you enjoy and get after it.

10. You need a bunch of supplements.

All you need is real natural food. Regardless of the diet plan that you follow, the need for pills, powders, potions, and shakes for weight loss is a myth.

If you choose to use supplements, make sure they are truly “supplements” to a solid nutrition plan that focuses on real food and not an attempt to make up for poor eating.  Perhaps consider a quality fish oil supplement or multi-vitamin for general health, but protein powders and “fat burning” pills are unnecessary for weight loss.

Get Help With This Free Program

With media and marketing bombarding us with often contradictory weight loss theories and tactics, cutting through the weight loss myths can be confusing.

Do your best to see through the “smoke and mirrors” by keeping in mind that weight loss comes down to eating real food in appropriate quantity, training outside of your comfort zone, allowing for proper recovery, and repeating the process with consistency.

To help guide you through the process, consider the Fat Loss For Free program which includes four different 12-week training programs that you can do from home, a 12-week sample menu, jump start audio program, and 68 instructional videos.  Get it today at no charge by clicking here and entering your email address.

It’s slowly dawning on you.

Unlike what you thought when you were a rosy-cheeked kid, life isn’t one constant upward ride. It’s full of ups and downs, twists and turns.

To become an expert at bouncing back from the downs and navigating those turns, try on these 12 tips for size.

1. Accept the reality of your situation

If you’re in the middle of bad circumstances, it’s time to do away with any kind of denial you might have and really see what is happening.

Peel back whatever intense emotions – fear, anger, sorrow – that are wrapped up in the problem and look at it for what it truly is. If you don’t get very honest with yourself about your circumstances, you’ll spend a lot of time and effort maintaining a façade that will only come tumbling down later and make the problem much worse.

2. Recognize that change is a constant

You fight change. You expend a lot of energy trying to keep things the same in your life.

Guess what? It’s time to realize that change is one of the few things that stays constant. It’s always going to be in your life.

So, if it’s a normal, consistent part of life, why struggle with it? Why not expect it and look for the opportunities it brings rather than dread its arrival?

3. Use self-compassion

It’s okay to be nice to yourself.

In fact, research shows that being self-compassionate improves both physical, mental, and emotional health.

Kristin Neff, the pioneering researcher in the field of self-compassion, suggests these three components to improve your ability to treat yourself kindly:

a.) Be aware of your inner criticisms. If you wouldn’t talk that way to your best friend, don’t talk to yourself like that.

b.) Because we experience our thoughts and feelings in isolation – within our own bodies and minds – we tend to think we are the only ones who have particular flaws and weaknesses.

Remember that you are part of a larger group – the human race. We all have flaws, we all make mistakes.

So, the next time you notice that you are beating yourself up about something, remember that, as a human being, you are bound to have at least a few deficiencies! Let it go.

c.) Be mindful. Notice your thoughts and feelings, but have no judgment about them. Just note what they are and don’t add to their impact by thinking how they should be.

4. Let it go

Resiliency requires flexibility and openness in order to problem-solve most efficiently and be aware of new opportunities.

Holding on tightly to a belief, behavior, or material object only drains your energy and narrows your focus onto that object. Then your ability to see outside of yourself and your situation is drastically reduced.

Practice by noticing when you feel tense and stressed and then consciously letting go of whatever you were just thinking about.

5. Create a tribe

It’s vital to have friends and family who can rally around you in an emergency. Make sure you have a good, stable tribe at your disposal.

6. Develop post-traumatic growth

When people experience trauma, a small number develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the majority bounce back naturally after a month or so, and the remaining people actually grow and benefit from the experience.

How is this done? The essentials are being optimistic and looking for the lessons in their lives. Give it a try.

7. View things from different perspectives

Although the crisis in front of you may look dire, ask yourself if there is another way to look at it. Might it actually open up opportunities for you? Are you magnifying it unnecessarily?

8. Rely on past experience

Remember that you’ve made it through tough times before.

It’s really easy to get so involved in your current situation that it seems like the biggest thing in your life. Ever.

But, unless you’ve led a charmed life, you have had other difficulties that you’ve come through and here you are now to talk about it.

Take heart from the knowledge that you got through adversity before and you very likely will again.

9. Give yourself a break

It’s important to refresh both your body and mind so take a break now and then. Some researchers call these “psychological timeouts” – a way to restore yourself by getting away from the intense emotions that often come along with problems.

And remember that it’s okay to distract yourself from mental and emotional experiences like grief and rumination, too. You could use a break. Go do something fun. See a movie, rock climb with friends, laugh, have some coffee.

Really. It’s okay.

10. You don’t have to like what’s happening

Somehow this idea of accepting your situation has taken on the added implication that you must also like what you accept.

Nobody said that.

You can be accepting, open, and flexible while at the same time acknowledging that the problem sucks.

11. Look up

This is so simple it may seem silly, but actually looking up every once in awhile can be just what is needed in times of trouble.

Because we tend to look down a lot, we can get very focused on our feet, the desk, or whatever is directly in front of us. This physical focus mirrors our internal focus.

When you take a moment to look up, you’ll notice a lot of things you haven’t seen for awhile.

The interesting architecture on that building. The different shades of gray and white in those clouds. The birds who seem to balance miraculously on that wire.

And, as your attention expands to take in the things above you, your internal focus will expand, too. You’ll start to get new ideas and new angles on where you are right now in life.

Next time you feel yourself staring at the ground, look up.

12. Be kind to others

Commit random acts of kindness.

Science has shown that helping others creates positive emotions actually creates physical changes in your body that expand your sense of possibilities in the world – the idea that there is more than one way to get through your current crisis.

Problem-solving a situation becomes much easier and you’ll find that positive emotions help exponentially with your ability to bounce back.

So look for opportunities to help others, especially when you feel like you’re the one needing help.

***

How do you bounce back in life when you are down in the dumps? Let us know in the comments below this post.

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Do you ever wonder when you have gained enough knowledge to be considered an expert?

If you ask people about this you will probably get an answer like: “When you can teach somebody else to do something, then you truly know it!”

There is definitely a lot of merit to this point of view, but I think that it is both imprecise and incomplete. I fully agree with the Expert Enough Manifesto, which directly states that ‘expertise is relative’. Think about that in relation to the statement above.

The above statement by itself may have you thinking that teaching is something you should refrain from until somebody has proclaimed you an expert, but nothing is further from the truth.

As soon as you know just a little bit more than your peers you are ready to teach. Of course I am not talking about teaching graduate students in astrophysics. But you definitely don’t have to get a PhD in astrophysics to be able to teach at least something about astrophysics to the general population.

I am of course talking about teaching people who have not yet reached your level of understanding of a subject, in this sense you can be the relative expert.

Seeing it from another point of view, teaching is also a great learning tool for yourself. Learning in isolation can be tough and you can easily fool yourself into thinking you understand something when you haven’t fully grasped the concept.

When you have to explain something to somebody else you shine the light on your knowledge and it becomes clear to yourself whether or not you have grasped everything. Sometimes you have all the pieces of the puzzle and being forced to explain a concept to somebody else will make the picture clear for you. Teaching will give you a lot of a-ha moments.

Get Your Halo On

Another great thing that teaching does is that it will let you take advantage of the halo effect.

When you are seen as knowledgeable in one area people are more likely to listen to you when you have something to say in another area. This is great if you plan to branch out.

Now I hope I have sold you on the concept of teaching, but how do you get started? In my opinion blogging is a great way to get started if you don’t already have an audience who you can teach. Publishing an ebook is another way.

However, although these two ways are great ways to get started, they lack one aspect of teaching that can really push you forward and that is the face to face experience. If you have a blog, your interaction with your audience will most likely be through email or blog comments and that means that you have quite a bit of time to reflect on how to answer a comment, which isn’t bad, but having to think on your feet and come up with an answer on the fly will force your mind to better arrange your knowledge and this will deepen your own understanding.

Finding Students

So, where do you find people to teach? If you are very unfamiliar with teaching I suggest you start small with some friends to get a feel for it, or why not volunteer at work to do some internal training (this is also great for networking and building your brand in the corporate world). You can also look into starting a local course and teach interested people in your neighborhood.

If you have a blog following, why not do a live webinar with a few participants. If you think about it for a few minutes I bet you will come up with a bunch of ways to get started.

But what do you do if you are really uncomfortable teaching? My advice is to attack it from two fronts. Start small (possibly with friends) and at the same time work on expanding your comfort zone until teaching is not a big hurdle anymore. Getting in front of people can be frightening, but with time and practice it will become very smooth for you.

Your Turn

Now it’s your turn. Think about how you can use teaching to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field.

Has the act of teaching helped you reach expert status in the past? Let us know about it in the comments below.

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The crowd falls silent as the gun is raised, thousand of eyes staring downfield as we prepare for battle.

“On your mark!”

I toe the line, my breath rising in the cold November air. My eyes focused straight ahead. My body coiled.

“Get set!”

This is it, I tell myself. All the years of preparation come down to this one race. This is your final test. Hold nothing back.

“BANG!”

Like a racehorse I explode forward, charging across the field like Braveheart. The earth shakes. The crowd roars. Hundreds of bodies surge around me. Sprinting. Pushing. Undulating like a sea of colors.

But within this tangle of confusion, I am focused. Calm. My eyes fixed directly forward as my competitors fade behind me…

Moving the Motivation from One Interest to Another

As you can probably guess from that little story, I’ve always been driven. In high school I would get up at 5:30 to run miles through the predawn streets.(Anything to get an upper hand on my competition.)

But my competitive running career came to a close two years ago. And without a race to prepare for, I’ve been forced to direct this well of energy towards something else. Something that I’m equally passionate about.

You see, about two years ago I read (as countless others have) The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss and immediately a new goal was born. The ultimate endpoint of freedom, mobility, and a location independent business enraptured my imagination and led me down the path I’ve been following ever since. A path of obsessive learning, vigorous implementation and inspiring discovery.

It’s been a great ride. And it’s just getting started.

But while all the different aspects of “lifestyle entrepreneurship” make me more excited than a four year old opening a Christmas Transformer, one stands out above all others.

And that is: Human performance and productivity.

More specifically, the reason why some people can take MASSIVE action and accomplish incredible things while others struggle to get out of bed in the morning.

This stuff fascinates me, and over the past few years I’ve learned, tested, and discovered countless different productivity methods. Some that work like gangbusters. Some that work like an unemployed thirty-year-old living in his parent’s basement.

But, after months of testing and tweaking I’m happy to say that this conundrum has finally “clicked”.

Achieve More

With the tools and strategies I’m gonna show you in this post, I’m now able to achieve far more than I ever thought possible. In fact, I’m able to run two online businesses, write 3,000 words a day and get a 3.83 GPA at top level university.

All while maintaining my health and sanity.

As you’ll probably agree, “self mastery” is the KEY to achieving your goals. Regardless of what you’re trying to become an expert in. It’s the most important life skill you can develop, but few people ever take the time to master it. And consequently, they fail to realize the immeasurable potential inside of them, just waiting to be tapped into.

But not you.

Not in my house.

If you follow the advice you’re about to learn, I wholeheartedly believe that you’ll be able to DOUBLE your personal effectiveness.

Not in the next 90 days.

Not in the next month.

In the next 48 hours.

Let’s get started.

The Foundation is Hustle

If you dig down to the core of self-mastery and productivity you’ll find a common thread. A universal characteristic shared by all the top performers.

Top performers have the same mindset that I embraced during my competitive running career. They want it. And they’re willing to do ANYTHING it takes to get there.

As JK Allen puts it, (high performers) are “motivated, focused and determined to create the most favorable outcomes possible.”

I call this the “hustle mindset”.

It’s the bedrock of everything we’re gonna cover in this post.

So before you start implementing specific “productivity hacks” hoping they will somehow turn you into an action taking machine, get this mindset down. Make sure that you want it bad enough and are DEDICATED to achieving your goals.

Because ultimately, there’s a harsh reality you need to face. A reality that’s probably been staring you in the face for a while now…but you may not have had the GUTS to confront head on.

And that’s this: If you want anything, anything at all, you must terminate all excuses and fully commit to making it happen.

If you really want to achieve your goals, you must stop “hoping” that success will fall into your lap and take TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY for your reality.

Sorry if I come across as harsh, but this is vital for you to understand.

Here’s the deal:

No one is going to save you. THINKING about blog readers and exotic travel destinations is NOT going to magically transform your life. And making excuses is going to get you absolutely nowhere.

You are in complete control of your reality.

You have the power to make a change.

It’s time to start hustling.

Six Steps to Radically Boosting Your Productivity

Okay so you’ve got the big stuff under control.

Great.

Now it’s time to shift gears, get practical and dive into the “meat and potatoes.”

In my experience, there have been six strategies that made a world of difference in my personal level of effectiveness. With these strategies in hand I’m now able to accomplish more in three hours then I used to get done in nine hours of unfocused work.

I’m able to hustle like never before.

So without further ado, let me take you by the hand and show you how each of these strategies work in detail, step by step.

Onward!

Step 1: Find Your Motivation And Define Your Objective

Success at any worthwhile goal is not easy…it will likely be a long and arduous task full of obstacles, challenges and personal tests.

With this in mind, the first step on your journey to high performance is to get crystal clear on the purpose of your actions. WHY you are taking action in the first place.

If your goals aren’t linked to a specific and tangible outcome, your motivation will slowly peter out. You may start off strong, but after a few weeks the “New Years resolution syndrome” will kick in and your initial enthusiasm will begin to fade.

You’ve experienced this before, right?

One minute you are charging full steam ahead and the next you’re staring at the ceiling, drooling like Homer Simpson, and wondering why you were taking action in the first place.

In order to avoid this “motivation slump” and STAY committed, it’s CRITICALLY important that you start out on the right foot, knowing where you are going, how you will get there, and why this project matters.

Here are five high-leverage questions that should get you started:

1. What is my ULTIMATE desired outcome?
2. How will I know when I’ve reached it?
3. What are the steps I need to take in order to reach my destination?
4. Which of these steps truly matters?
5. What are the top three reasons why this goal matters to me?

Take the time to carefully answer these questions. They will give you incredible clarity, insight and personal power.

“Desire is the key to motivation, but its determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” - Mario Andretti

Step 2: Be Brutally Honest With Yourself

Before we go into any of the specific strategies, there’s one more “overarching” reality I want to cover. It’s something that most people never confront and it may be holding you back right now.

What I’m talking about is individual variation.

You see, everybody is different. Everybody has a slightly different internal clock and optimal work schedule. Some people like to work in the morning, others at night. Tim Ferriss does his best work from 1-4 am.

When understanding this individual variation, it’s CRITICALLY important that you are brutally honest about how YOU work best.

“How many of us go through our entire lives basically lying to ourselves, refusing to acknowledge the way we actually are? Instead we say things like, “yeah, I really should wake up earlier.” WHY? If you’re not a morning person, focus your productivity where you ARE effective.” – Ramit Sethi

Great advice.

In order to get the most out of your day, be brutally honest about:

1. Where you work best. Is it in your home? The office? A coffee shop? The library?
2. When you work best. Are you more productive in the morning, at night, or in the afternoon?
3. What YOU need to be most effective. Do you need complete silence to do your best work? Do you work better in a noisy environment? Do you need to watch a special pump-up video?

If you are unsure about any of these questions…my recommendation is to run some tests. Block off a short period of time and strategically test different variations.

You may be surprised by the results.

Step 3: Optimize Your Environment

Okay, so you’ve got the necessary “hustle mindset”, enough motivation to choke a horse, and how YOU work best.

Great.

The next step is to create an environment that is naturally conducive to optimum performance and to remove ALL the obstacles standing in your way.

Eben Pagan calls these obstacles “friction.”

In essence, “friction” is anything that is inhibiting you from working efficiently. While there are literally countless different obstacles (both real and imagined) that may be limiting your success, here are a few of the most common:

1. Emotional/Psychological “friction”– Emotional baggage, worries, or distracting thoughts that inhibit your ability to concentrate. (We’ll cover the best way to deal with this in the next step).

2. Environmental “friction”– Clutter, an uncomfortable chair, a lack of organization, or any other situational problem that inhibits your ability to work effectively.

3. Physical (health related) “friction”– A lack of energy and physical vitality.

4. Human “friction”– Inefficient, distracting, or disruptive people who inhibit your ability to stay on track.

5. Technological “friction”– Slow, distracting, or time-consuming technology that saps your time and energy.

Reading through that list are you starting to identify the areas that are slowing you down?

Maybe you’re sick and have no energy. Maybe you spend your time on pointless activities that you could easily outsource. Maybe you waste hours wrestling with pernicious thought patterns.

Whatever it is, whatever kind of “friction” is holding you back, you have the power to turn it around. There are really only two steps:

1.  Identify the “friction” in your life. Take a good look at all the different aspects and determine what needs fixing.
2.  Strategically and systematically work on optimizing each aspect until the “friction” is eliminated.

Personally, the two biggest factors holding me back were environmental clutter (a big freakin’ mess) and a noisy work environment (my roommate screaming like Barney Stinson as he plays Skyrim). Once I identified and shifted these two areas my productivity immediately skyrocketed. Literally overnight.

The same is possible for you.

• Take a step back.
• Determine what’s not working.
• Optimize.
• Repeat.

Step 4: Create Specific, Energy Maintenance Rituals

Brendan Burchard says that there are five key aspects to high performance:

1. Purpose
2. Psychology
3. Physiology
4. Productivity
5. Persuasion

We’ve already covered purpose and psychology. Now it’s time to dive out of the abstract and into the tangible: to tackle physiology and productivity in one fell swoop.

How do we accomplish this?

One word: rituals.

Specific, consistent rituals that conserve energy and “prime” your body for optimum performance. Rituals that get you immediately into gear. Ready to rock and roll.

If you don’t already have a “pre-hustle” ritual I highly recommend you start one. Not only will it allow you to work more efficiently and at a higher level…but it will also boost your energy and “condition” your mind to think creatively. It will become automatic. Part of your life.

“The most important role of rituals is to insure an effective balance between energy expenditure and energy renewal in the service of full engagement. A ritual is the equivalent of the rest period in interval training. Its purpose is to restore energy and improve productivity.” - Tony Schwartz

Your ability to produce results is directly related to the current state of your mind. Wouldn’t you agree? If your mind is sharp and clear you will be able to churn out great work with very little effort. On the other hand, if your mind is cloudy and unfocused you’ll likely produce sub-par results.

Simple enough, right?

Well here’s where it gets really cool.

Over the past few years I’ve come to realize that you actually have the power to CONTROL the current state of your mind by practicing simple rituals. You are not at the whim of some external force, but actually have the ability to CHOOSE when to think effectively.

By setting up simple rituals, you can literally transform your consciousness immediately, allowing you to produce better work in less time.

Here’s an example of my 60-minute morning ritual:

1. Run for 30 minutes.
2. Guzzle a bottle of water.
3. Take a shower.
4. Meditate for 10 minutes.
5. Eat something healthy.
6. Start writing.

I do this every day. It’s automatic now.

This ritual puts me in an energized, relaxed and super-focused state of mind. Ready to take massive action.

By strategically targeting my body’s physiology I am able to alter my psychology EXACTLY when I need to…and perform at a consistently higher level.

Read that last line again. This is CRITICALLY important.

As I wrote in a recent guest post over at Write to Done,

“If you are struggling to create consistently high level work, I highly recommend you adopt a highly specific, positive energy management ritual like mine.

You don’t have to copy mine exactly, but make sure you fill it with powerful activities. Things like…

1. Taking a shower.
2. Eating clean, healthy food.
3. Running.
4. Drinking water.
5. Looking at your “vision board”.
6. Laughing.
7. Journaling.
8. Practicing yoga.
9. READING good writing.
10. Talking to someone you love.
11. Reading inspirational quotes.

…you get the idea.

Make it personal.

Make it specific.

Tap into instant flow.”

While a ritual can be performed at any time of day, I highly recommend you create a morning ritual. This will set the tone for your day and help you stay on the right track.

In addition to creating a specific “pre-work” routine, I also recommend you create routines for all the tasks you need to complete on a regular basis. Make them habits. Schedule them into your day so that they become automatic.

Step 5: Work According To Your Body’s Natural Cycle

Okay, so you know how to set yourself up for optimum performance, but what about the actual work itself?

Well, that’s what this next step is all about.

For me, discovering this next strategy was a big “Aha!” moment, so be sure to pay attention.

The following method came from a fantastic book I recently read called The Power of Full Engagement by Tony Schwartz.

In The Power of Full Engagement, Tony introduces us to something called the Ultradian Rhythm. In essence, the ultradian rhythm is a natural human cycle, which occurs every 90-120 minutes throughout day (while we’re awake).

This cycle dictates that the human mind can focus and concentrate for 90 to 120 minutes at a time…after which our attention spans decrease and our productivity plummets.

After about 90 Minutes we are worn out and need to take a break and allow our energy levels to reboot. To replenish. To return to normal.

Did you know that? I sure didn’t.

If you struggle with procrastination or low energy levels, chances are you aren’t crafting your schedule to match this natural cycle of rest and relaxation.

And consequently, you’re feeling sluggish, tired and lethargic, dragging yourself along like a sloth with a migraine.

But all is not lost.

Luckily for you, with this knowledge you can turn the tables and massively increase your effectiveness.

Here’s the workflow:

1. Work hard for 60-90 minutes. Focus on ONE THING with zero interruptions. Go all out.
2. After your time is up, stop and take a 10-15 minute break. This doesn’t mean checking email or playing video games while your adrenal glands fire like you’re being chased by a grizzly bear. I’m talking about REST. Get up, take a deep breath, walk around, drink a big glass of water, lay down, meditate, or whatever you need to do to feel recharged.
3. Repeat this cycle 2-4 times.
4. After you finish, stop and relax guilt free.

Super powerful stuff.

But wait, there’s one more thing I want to mention.

When you are working, it’s ESSENTIAL that you eliminate all distractions and set up an environment that will allow you to concentrate fully on the task at hand.

• Close email.
• Close Twitter.
• Close Facebook.
• Silence your phone.

By focusing your entire attention on one task for an extended period of time, you’ll get more done than you ever though possible.

As Tony Schwartz puts it, “The greatest power of our mind is to focus on ONE THING for an extended period of time.”

Step 6: Stop Working So Hard

This final strategy is VERY counterintuitive. In fact, when I was first introduced to it I was incredibly skeptical.

However, after putting it to the test I’m happy to say that one of the BEST ways to boost your effectiveness is to routinely take time off. Get off the computer. Go have fun.

Now I know you’re probably thinking “how on earth is reducing my hours actually going to increase my results?”

Well, there are two reasons.

1. First, by taking time off, you restore your energy levels, regain your motivation and are able to work with a higher level of FOCUS. This increased focus drastically boosts your efficiency…allowing you to get more done in less time.
2. Second, by removing yourself from the trenches, you gain a new perspective. When you return, you are able to “see” your project with new eyes. You can pinpoint the areas you need to target and often spontaneously generate solutions to problems you’ve been agonizing over for weeks.

Try it. You’ll see what I mean.

To hammer this point even further, there’s one more thing I want you to do: Go watch this video. It’s by the (business and productivity guru) Eben Pagan and it will make you see “rest” in a new light.

The world operates in sequential cycles of activity and rest, hustle and renewal…

…you can’t have one without the other.

Bottom Line

I’m gonna wrap things up now, but before I do, there’s something I want to talk about. A simple concept that encompasses everything we’ve covered so far.

Here it is:

“Time management is a misnomer. The challenge is to manage ourselves.” – Stephen Covey

Think about that for a second.

“Time management is a misnomer. The challenge is to manage OURSELVES.”

Wow!

Ultimately, getting more done is not about “scheduling” your time or “organizing” your life. It’s about finding a place of deep INNER motivation and conditioning YOURSELF to be better every day.

This is your challenge.

Now go accomplish something.

You can learn to bend life to your will, and once you’ve figured that out, anything is possible. The trick is in figuring out how to systematically change your life.

Most of us could use more doing and less consuming. To acquire new skills, live an interesting life and do adventurous things, you have to get good at putting in the effort it takes to actually do those things.

Intentional effort is the magic ingredient to an amazing life. Some people might hear that and get depressed. I prefer to feel encouraged knowing that talent doesn’t determine our fate, hard work does.

If you want to accomplish more but aren’t sure where to start, here are three of my favorite tips for getting more out of life:

Treat life as an experiment

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. -Ralph Waldo Emerson 

An experiment is meant to find out the answer to something you don’t know for sure. Too many of us live life by a set of self-imposed rules that make us act as if we know answers we really don’t know.

“My boss wouldn’t let me take that trip to Thailand.”
“My blog readers wouldn’t buy an ebook from me.”
“I’m bad at languages, I could never learn Spanish.”
“I’m not good at sports, I wouldn’t be able to finish a marathon.”

We tell ourselves self-defeating things all the time. We’re afraid of failure, worried about what people think, and nervous about trying new things.

Instead of caring about the outcome so much, why not look at these scenarios and anything else in life as an experiment?

Living life as an experiment unlocks a whole lot of awesomeness:

Because when we live life as an experiment, we are far more willing to take risks, to acknowledge failure, to learn and develop. That’s what experiments are all about: discovery and growth. There is no real failure in an experiment because it’s all data. If something doesn’t work, that’s simply data that leads to changing behavior to see if something else does work.
-Peter Bregman, Live Life as an Experiment

Make time for the important things

Run that errand, jump on Twitter, answer the phone, check the news, respond to email… wait, where’d the day go?

Sound familiar?

With all the distractions and media in our modern lives, days slip by unintentionally without warning.

You’ll never keep on top of every email, tweet, blog post, news story, phone call, etc. anyway. Call it fear of missing out, or just good old procrastination, what we should be doing often loses out to staying plugged in.

The only way to ensure you get done what really needs to get done is to set aside the time. Literally. On your calendar. If you believe something is important enough, you should block out time to get it done. Treat it like an important meeting.

And if it’s really important (or if your will isn’t strong enough to get it done), set the time aside first thing in the morning, and do nothing else until your mission has been accomplished.

Practice deliberately

The key to getting better at anything is deliberate practice.

Scientific research shows that the quality of your practice is just as important as the quantity. Simply spending time doing something won’t lead you to expert levels of performance.

To gain skills rapidly or approach expert-level status at something, you must understand the importance of deliberate practice and learn how to incorporate it into your daily life.

Deliberate practice involves formally structuring your practice with the specific goal of improving performance. Mere repetition won’t do. Your practice must be: intentional, aimed at improving performance, designed for your current skill level, combined with immediate feedback, and repetitious.

Learn more about deliberate practice, and how to use it to your advantage.

“Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone.” -Neale Donald Walsch   tweet this

But who wants to be defined by just a single thing they do?

When you spend a lot of time doing something, whether you are paid to do it or not, you are bound to have the urge to try out other things.

Just because you get paid to do something for a living doesn’t mean that your career defines 100% of who you are. Just because something is strictly a hobby that costs you a lot of money each month doesn’t mean that it is a waste of time.

Be A Polymath

What we are all really striving for is a sense of balance. We want to have a stable job that pays well, but that isn’t repetitive or boring. We want to pick up new skills and talents without having to invest 10,000 hours.

We don’t want to have to label ourselves with just a single word that describes our occupation.

• I’m an accountant.
• I’m a nurse.
• I’m a photographer.

In a way, doing this is a bit demeaning. We are more than what our resumés or LinkedIn profiles say we are. We are more than what we do for a living.

We are experts at a bunch of things, not just one.

The Bigger Questions

How does it make you feel when you try to explain all the things you enjoy and like to do?

Does it make you feel like you should be “focusing your energy to maximize your output”? We’re not machines. Not everything needs to be so black and white.

Can you even give an elevator pitch about all the different types of things you do to earn a living?

Or are you a polymath that could be labeled by any number of job titles?

Humans are meant for more than to become just a cog in a machine. We’re more than just a widget or tool that is only good at accomplishing one thing. (Hammer the nail, turn the screw, etc.)

What It Takes

All it takes is determining the talents you want to have, putting in the effort to get good at them, and busting your ass till you get there.

It all boils down to effort. Are you willing to work for it?

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One year, 123 posts, and 238,000 visits later we wish this site a very happy first birthday. Hip Hip Hurray!

Over the past year, we’ve sat down with experts on the Expert Enough Show. We’ve given you a swift kick in the pants, with The Lost Art of Hard Work. And when you needed just a little bit more motivation to keep striving towards being an expert we gave you 18 Encouraging Quotes Every Aspiring Expert Needs to Hear. We helped you learn the essential basics of chocolate, racquetball, or rock climbing and more.

It’s been a heckuva year, and we’re so glad you’re here with us.

Here are some of the cornerstone posts that shape what Expert Enough is all about:

1. The Lost Art of Becoming Good at Things

In this post, Corbett asked has the art of becoming good at things been lost on today’s instant gratification society? It has gone on to be the most popular post here at Expert Enough, with nearly 3,000 social media shares and counting.

2. The Expert Enough Manifesto

As the cornerstone of this site, the Expert Enough Manifesto lays out our creed. Learn More. Do More. Be More. This post was so popular that we ended up turning it into a physical poster you can order.

3. Do Shortcuts Exist to Becoming an Expert?

During launch week we asked 23 experts whether they thought there were shortcuts to becoming an expert. Their answers may surprise you.

4. Pushing Your Body to Physical Limits: How to Train Like a Fitness Badass

A surprising fourth most popular is a guest essay by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits in which he describes how he trained for and completed the GORUCK challenge; one the most physically demanding events in existance.

5. Deliberate Practice: What It Is and Why You Need It

Did you know that the quality of your practice is just as important as the quantity? Or that scientists also believe that expert-level performance is primarily the result of expert-level practice NOT due to innate talent. This concept is known as deliberate practice, and it’s incredibly powerful.

***

Thanks to everyone that has been a reader, sharer, and fan of Expert Enough over the past year. Corbett and I really appreciate it.

What is your favorite post from Expert Enough so far?

We’d love to hear from you in the comments below this post. What do you want to see Expert Enough cover in year two? What has been your favorite post in the archives?

Cheers!

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Show up. Work hard. Learn. Improve.

Show up. Work hard. Learn. Improve…

That’s the exact equation that will enable you to accomplish absolutely anything you want in life.

The equation is so incredibly simple.

But so few will ever put the power of that simplicity to work.

We look for shortcuts and excuses. We over-complicate things. We come up with 99 reasons why other people can but we can’t. Or worse, we’re filled to the brim with confidence but laughably lacking in substance.

Whatever the case, there is no substitute for showing up, working hard, learning and improving.

Do that every day, and one day you will become exactly what you set out to.

Keep ignoring it and progress will always be just out of your reach.

Choose wisely.

There are a lot of reasons why commuting by bike might appeal to you.

Maybe you’re looking to save some money in gas and parking fees, cut down on your carbon footprint, or get a little physical activity in your day without setting extra time aside for it. Maybe you just think that it sounds like a fun way to get around.

Whatever your reason, if you’re about to start biking, there are some simple things you can do to make sure your ride to work is as pleasant as possible.

Make It Comfortable

An uncomfortable experience riding to work one day can go a long way towards making you want to throw your bike in the back of the garage and leave it there to rust. Biking to work doesn’t have to be uncomfortable, though. There are two main areas that can affect your comfort: your bike and your clothes.

Your Bike

If you’re buying a bike for commuting, get one that fits you. If you’re buying new, the bike shop will be able to fit your bike to you.

If you’re buying second-hand, you can take your bike in to a bike shop for a fitting, or fit your bike yourself. The fitting instructions here or here are a good place to start, and if you want a lot more information on bike fit, the information at Bike Dynamics is pretty technical, but very comprehensive.

If you do choose to fit your bike yourself, you’ll find it easiest if you have someone to help you with measurements, and with holding your bike still while you sit on it.  It’s almost impossible to fit your own bike without help. If you already own a bike, but it’s incredibly uncomfortable to ride the thing for more than about ten minutes, you might have fit problems.

Unless your bike frame is ludicrously under or over-sized, you should be able to make it fit. Again, you can take your bike into a shop for a fitting, or adjust the fit yourself. You may be able to fix the problem by adjusting the parts that are already on your bike, but if the fit is a long way off, you may need to change some parts to get everything where it needs to be. A different handlebar, or a shorter or longer stem (the bit that attaches the handlebar to your bike) can make a big difference to the way you bike fits you, and both parts can be bought on the cheap.

Another thing that can really affect the comfort of your bike is your saddle. If you’re a new cyclist, you probably want to look at a gel saddle of some type. Whatever saddle you get, though, it’s important to get one that’s the right width for your sit bones (or ischial tuberosities). Trying to perch yourself onto a saddle that’s too narrow for you will never be comfortable, no matter how much gel padding the saddle has.

Some bike shops have a kind of foamy cushion that you can sit on, and measuring the resulting impressions will tell you how wide your sit bones are, and what kind of saddle you should be looking for.

Your Clothes

The problem with clothes and comfort is that there are really two things to consider: physical comfort and mental comfort. The softest, most comfortable padded bike shorts in the world won’t do you any good if you can’t bring yourself to put them on. The good news is that you probably don’t need to wear dedicated bike gear unless you have a really long commute. (For reference, my commute is between 8-10 km (5 miles) depending on which route I take, and I don’t wear bike shorts.)

If you’ve got a relatively short way to ride, and you aren’t planning to ride very hard, you can pretty much wear whatever you like. Long overcoats or flowing skirts probably aren’t a great idea unless your bike is the upright sort with skirt guards, but apart from that, you should be fine in anything.

I generally ride at a medium pace, so I like to wear a t-shirt for riding in and then change to my work shirt when I get to work. If I’m riding hard or the weather is bad, I’ll wear a t-shirt and shorts, and do a full change when I get to work.

Speaking of bad weather, if you’re riding in the rain, either keeping spare shoes and socks at work or bringing a spare pair with you is a really good idea. There is some bike gear that might be worth looking at, though – a good waterproof coat (waterproof breathable if you want to ride hard enough to get sweaty) is highly desirable if you’re riding in the rain, and if you’re biking in your work pants, you will probably also want a pair of waterproof overpants.

You can get waterproof gear that’s designed for cyclists, but if there’s something else you prefer, there’s no need to go with biking-specific gear. Biking gloves are something that’s worth at least trying on – I find mine both pleasantly warm on cold days and pleasantly cushiony on my hands going over rough sections of road.

Make It Safe

Riding a bike isn’t as unsafe as you might think, but if you haven’t been on a bike in a while and are concerned about safety, here are a couple of things you might want to consider.

Be Visible

A lot of bike-car accidents happen because the car drivers just don’t see the cyclist that is right in front of their nose. Wearing bright clothing (during the day) and reflective clothing (at night) can go a long way towards making you more visible.

You don’t need to go fluorescent orange from head to toe – a bright bag, scarf or helmet can make a big difference to your visibility. Reflective ankle bands or trouser clips are particularly good at night, because your legs move up and down when you cycle, and a brightly coloured thing bobbing along in the dark is much more noticeable than something that isn’t moving.

And if you’re commuting at night, it’s also worth investing in good front and rear lights for your bike.

One final thing to think about in terms of visibility is road position – you want to ride far enough out from the side of the road that you can be seen by cars pulling out from side streets or driveways. It’s generally a good idea to give yourself at least a meter of clearance from the side of the road. This will also stop your bike tires from getting caught in drains and gutters, as well as give you a place to retreat to if you need some extra space.

Take a Course

If you’ve never ridden a bike, or if you haven’t ridden in twenty years, you may find that you aren’t particularly confident riding on the roads. If that’s the case, rather than riding on the sidewalk (which is actually more dangerous than riding on the road), think about taking a cycle skills course. You should be able to find a course through a local cycling group or your city council.

A cycle skills course will teach you useful basics like the right way to signal, how to go through intersections, and how to check your bike before you ride it. You might also want to think about taking a basic bicycle maintenance course, which will teach you things like how to fix a flat tire and adjust your brakes.

Check Your Bike

Speaking of maintenance, it’s a good idea to make sure your bike is in working order before you get out and start riding.

At a minimum, you want to check that you’ve got air in your tires, and that your brakes actually work. To check your brakes, wheel your bike along the ground, and then squeeze one of your brakes as your bike is moving (you’ll want to check each brake individually).  If your front brake is working properly, your back wheel will lift off the ground a little as the front wheel stops and you keep pushing. If your back brake is working properly, your back wheel should drag along as you keep pushing.

It’s important that your brakes both work when you squeeze them and disengage so they aren’t touching the wheel when you let them go. You’ll also want to check the cable that runs from your brake lever to your brake and make sure it isn’t frayed or about to rust through. If you are having brake problems, you can probably fix them yourself, but if you’re not comfortable tinkering with your bike, a bike shop can service your bike for you.

Make It Easy

If you live round the corner from your workplace, you probably don’t need to worry too much about making your commute easier. But if you’re going to be riding more than a couple of miles or kilometers and you aren’t used to cycling, then you might want to think about easing your way into cycling to work, instead of just throwing away your car keys and hoping for the best.

Shorten the Ride

If your commute is really long or really hilly, you could consider only biking part of the way. If you’ve got a good public transport option somewhere nearby, try biking there and then taking public transport. As you get used to riding, you can bike to stops that are further away.

Alternatively, you could look at driving part of the way and finishing up on the bike, or biking to a coworker’s house and then carpooling.

And if you don’t like the idea of coordinating bikes alongside buses, trains or cars in one commute, you could try biking one way and then driving or taking public transport the other way. This isn’t really practical unless you have a safe place at work to leave your bike overnight, but if you do, you may find this a lot less tiring than trying to ride both ways.

Go Electric

Another way to make your bike commute easier is electric assist. An electric bike is just like a regular bike, but it has a motor – most often built into one of the wheels – that provides extra power. If you’ve already got a bike you like, you can get an electric conversion kit for it, and if not, there are plenty of dedicated electric bikes in various price ranges to choose from.

You’ll need a certain amount of mechanical competence to convert a bike yourself, or you can get a bike mechanic to do the conversion for you. Electric bikes aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if the idea appeals to you, you should be able to find a bike shop relatively close to you with an electric bike you can test ride.

Find a Nice Route

If you’re driving to work, chances are you don’t need to think too hard about the route you take to get there. On a bike, though, it might be worth taking a look at your options a little more carefully. There are probably shortcuts, shared pathways and off-road trails that you could take if you’re biking that just aren’t open to car drivers.

Some of these may be obvious, and others probably aren’t.

Talk to other bike commuters, follow someone who looks like they’re heading in the right direction, or check cycling maps of your local area and see what’s out there. You can probably find something a lot nicer than riding along the main roads, and it may actually be quicker as well.

Ride with Someone

If you have a friend who’s already commuting by bike, try riding with them the first couple of times. They should be able to show you a good route or two, and riding with someone who knows where they’re going and is confident on their bike can be a good confidence booster when you’re starting out.

Start Riding

Once you’ve got a comfortable, well-fitting bike, a route you’re happy with and an outfit you can ride in, all that remains is for you to start riding.

Pick a nice day when you aren’t feeling too rushed, hop on your bike and give it a go.  You’ll probably find biking to work easier than you thought, and you might even like it enough to give up driving to work altogether.

***

What have your experiences with riding your bike to work been? Share any helpful tips or experiences below in the comments.

He has set out to answer the question: could anyone (regardless of talent, age, financial means or prior ability) really become an expert at something with 10,000 hours of deliberate practice?

In this episode of The Expert Enough Show, Corbett Barr sits down with Dan McLaughlin of TheDanPlan.com to find out.

Dan is testing the 10,000 hour rule by trying to become a professional golfer through 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. His goal is to make the PGA Tour.

He’s already 3,300 hours of the way there and now has a 6 handicap (better than 93% of golfers), despite never playing a full 18 holes before he started the experiment.

Watch or listen to this episode to find out more about why (and how) he is doing it and what he has learned so far.

You won’t want to miss Dan’s story about how he has quit his job to pursue golf full-time without ANY prior experience.

Audio Only Version:

If you can’t see the players above, watch the video version of the episode on our YouTube channel or listen to the audio version of the show through our podcast feed on iTunes.

You can find out more about Dan’s 10,000 hour golf journey at TheDanPlan.com.

Subscribe to the show to get free updates:

• Subscribe to The Expert Enough Show on YouTube
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If you’ve been enjoying these episodes of The Expert Enough Show, we’d love to hear from you. Please head over to iTunes and leave us a review telling us what you like about the show. We appreciate it.

And if you have someone or something you’d like us to cover on an upcoming show, tell us in the comments below.

Now over to you: do you think anyone can really use 10,000 hour rule to become a professional athlete? What about using it to become an expert in other fields?

Leave us a comment below. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers!

You might think that your cell phone or point-and-shoot camera is pretty handy, but if you’ve never gotten your hands on a DSLR camera, you don’t know what you’re missing out on.

If you’ve ever looked at amazing macro or action stock images and wondered how the photographer did that, you’ll find your answer by trying out a DSLR.

Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras can be intimidating if you don’t know what you’re looking at; aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance… what can they all possibly contribute to a simple photo? The answer, as you’ll see, is quite a lot.

All of the elements work together to get the best exposure and clarity, and when you learn to use these manual controls, you’ll be amazed by their power.

Goodbye Automatic Mode

Put your camera in Manual mode and play around with these settings.

• Aperture – the width of the opening in the lens. A bigger opening allows in more light, and should be used in darker settings. Aperture is also used to get less or more depth of field. A shallow depth of field, where background objects are blurry, is achieved by lower aperture numbers (1.4, 1.8, 2.0, etc.). Great depth of field, where background objects appear just as sharply as the foreground, can be found by using high aperture numbers (f22).
• Shutter speed – the speed at which the camera closes. A slower shutter speed can be used in combination with a wider aperture to get better pictures in dark settings.
• ISO – the camera’s sensitivity to light. Another important function for when you’re shooting in the dark, a high ISO setting can make a big difference. Just make sure not to go too high; you’ll notice that your photos become grainy if the setting is off.
• White Balance – correction of the camera’s perception of colors. Your camera lens picks up on the “color temperature” of any light source and reflects that on your subject. White balance detects the deviation of this color and sets it back to normal. This function is important when you’re shooting in unnatural lighting, like in a fluorescent-lit room.

Now that you know about all these elements, play around with them! Use them in different combinations while taking the same photo. That way you’ll really begin to understand how each setting affects the others.

Then start looking into the other elements of DSLR photography that will really take you to the next level:

• A tripod – Look for a small, flexible one with a ball head; if yours is too large and clunky you’ll be tempted to leave it behind. But a good tripod is an essential component of many types of photography.
• Different lenses – If you stick with the lens that came with your camera, you’ll miss out on a whole world of possibility. Canon L Series lenses are a great place to start; even if you have to rent them, you should check out the amazing effects you can get from macro, wide angle, and zoom telephoto lenses.
• Photo Editing – If you don’t want to spring for a full version of Adobe Photoshop, consider getting Photoshop Elements or Lightroom, which are much cheaper. Or you can try out a free alternative, like GIMP or Krita. Whichever you choose, it’s important to learn at least the basics of photo editing. Changing tone, contrast, saturation, sharpness, and a host of other variables can make a good photo stunning.

Beginner Photographer Mistakes

Technical errors are by far the most prevalent type of slip-up for any new photographer. You’ll constantly get stuck in the wrong gear, and find yourself taking shaky, overexposed, or blue-tinted photos. But once you’ve made it past these mechanical pitfalls, you still might find yourself struggling to get interesting, attractive, and consistent images. Read on to find out why, and how you can break away from the worst bad habits of beginner photographers.

Damaging the Quality of Your Images

There are a lot of ways to make this mistake, but the most common are:

• Using a lower resolution when you shoot: This may reduce memory size, but it really isn’t worth it unless you’re shooting a few drafts to play around with your composition. Always shoot your photos in RAW and reduce the size later, during the editing stage.
• Using your camera’s JPG compression option: Same issue, different method; if you absolutely must compress your images, at least choose a manual option that is less of a compromise of quality.
• Using your camera’s digital zoom: Not only does this feature make it more difficult to get a good focus and exposure, it also produces lower-quality photos. Contrary to what it might seem, zooming does not capture more detail; it just adds filler pixels.

Forgetting to Eliminate Distractions

Take a look at the famous photo that captured the aftermath of the Kent State massacre. Obviously, the pole in the background of the shot is very distracting; it just happens to be positioned in such a way that it looks like it’s rising from the subject’s head. In many reproductions of this photo, the pole has been edited out, and for good reason.

If you’re not pressed for time, take a minute to consider the entire scene. Make sure that extraneous objects, bizarre poses, stray bits of hair, and other distractions are fixed before you shoot.

Cropping Too Tightly

The importance of white space is counterintuitive for a lot of beginners. But cropping in too close around you subject makes a photo look cramped. If you give yourself plenty of space in the margins, you’ll be able to play with the size and shape that works best during the editing process. Always leave plenty of room around your subject, then crop later.

Disregarding the Composition

Most beginner photographers think that they’re capturing an image of a subject, and leave it at that. But a photographer should always strike a balance between their subject and their composition. This adds the kind of depth and dynamism that makes people really appreciate a photo, and call it art.

To get a handle on this, look at a famous photographic image, such as The Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz. Instead of thinking about the subject matter or the people in the scene, focus on the lines and shapes they create. You’ll see that the arrangement of forms has a uniformity that is punctuated by irregularities. A good photograph, like any kind of art, should have a mix of both order and chaos.

***

There are a lot of other hazards for the inexperienced photographer; bad use of contrast or depth of field, getting too carried away with photographic trends, or using the wrong focal length lens are just a few. But if you learn to avoid these main issues, you’ll have a very solid start on tackling the rest, and advancing from a beginner to an expert.

Getting into DSLR photography is an investment, but if you want to take your interest to the next level, the rewards are incredibly satisfying. You’ll learn how to capture and manipulate images in ways that you might not have thought were possible. Your dedication will pay off a hundredfold when you amaze people with your wall-worthy images.

In late 2009 I tried to make money online and quickly found I had no idea what I was doing. Like most people when you first want to break into the online world, you hear stories about everyone easily making money using the internet. This of course is both intriguing and exciting.

Loving the idea that you can make $5,000 on a product fascinates you and you want that. But instead of wasting time with Google Adsense, sponsored reviews, and other useless monetization methods to make money online, you should start creating your own products.

But then you discover you don’t know where to start, and have no clue about what product to create either. So how do you get started? What product should you create?

I’m going to share some of the tips and strategies I used to create my own line of products, and become an expert at building my own brand, so you can too!

Don’t wait as long as I did. Because it’s the best way to build your brand and become an established expert! Not only that, it’s one of the most effective ways to increase awareness to you and your brand and create a constant stream of revenue. Here’s how to effectively build your brand and become an established expert.

1. Choose a Niche You’re Passionate About

One thing I found out, is that most people go into a niche after doing tons of research and seeing it’s profitable, but they have no knowledge of the area at all. That is not a good strategy. From day one you shouldn’t be looking to make money, but instead to add value to a niche you’re already passionate about.

Write down a list of at least twenty different areas in your life that you’re passionate about but that don’t seem to work how you’d like. Next, narrow that list down from your best to the least. As your list gets shorter, you’ll start to see what areas affect your life the most. These are areas you’re most interested in.

When you get that list down to about five categories, it’s time to do the market research to see which niche you should focus on. Along with what products and services you’re going to build your campaigns around, your next decision should be based on one simple principle.

There should be a demand for that product or service!

You don’t want to waste your time and effort creating marketing campaigns for a product or service that no one wants. You want to focus on finding products that people are looking for, ones they actually need.

It needs to be something that will make their lives better, make them feel better, make them look better physically, or solve a specific problem. These are the types of products people will actually spend their money on!

2. Research Where Your Target Market Is

Once you’ve chosen a product (or service) that meets the basic requirements, the next step is to research and narrow what your target market group is for that item. Some of the questions you need to find answers to include:

- Where do they spend their time online?

- What do they do in their spare time?

- What are their spending habits? (What do they buy?)

There are of course many other factors you can consider, but these are some of the basic questions and a good place to start. There are also many different free and paid tools available to help you better evaluate niche markets and determine overall viability. However, simple research is all you really need to do and should give you enough ideas to get started.

The next thing you need to look for as you research your niche market group is what they are prepared to spend on a product or service. This will help you when it comes to creating your advertising material.

The best and most effective way to do this is to visit sites that advertise products or services similar to what you have chosen to sell. It should be easy enough for you to see if they are giving away a service or at what price they are offering their products to consumers for.

After you’ve narrowed your niche down, you’ll want to browse Google to find some of the top products in that niche that have been sold over the past 12 months. Doing this will let you see what products sold the most, so you can figure out how to effectively create your own.

If you see that video products sold the best then maybe you should create a video product. If you see an audio course with an ebook attached sold the best, then that’s something you should focus on. This is called creating a product competition report, which is very important. Realizing what other people in your niche have done is vital to success with your new product.

3. Learn What People Really Need & Meet It

As we begin our journey into creating a profitable product, you need to stop to ask yourself these questions. What are people desperate for? What do people really need? By answering these questions, you’ll be able to tap into countless profitable niche markets.

Because when it comes to what people need rather than what they want, you’ve got yourself some hungry, desperate buyers who will anxiously purchase instant solutions or remedies to their questions and concerns.

You’ve probably heard of just how profitable “desperate markets” are and there’s good reason for this. Markets that are considered desperate are not only easier to target but easier to sell to, as they’re based around a need rather than a want.

For example:

- That person desperate to get rid of her acne

- That mother who’s frustrated with potty training her child

- The broken hearted lover who will do anything to win his ex back

When a need is there, rather than just a desire, you’ve got a winning niche.

Combine that with a laser targeted campaign that provides a solution to their problem and you’ve got the winning recipe to success!

4. Outsource Tasks You Are Weak At

What you want to do now is be effective with both your time and money, which means only focusing on the areas you can actually do. If you plan to create a video product then do your videos and get that work done within the next 7 days. You can do it!

If you’re going to write a guide then write the outline in the next 24 hours and use the rest of the six days to write that guide. Don’t hesitate. I waited too long to create my own products and I now regret it. The longer you wait the more likely you’re not going to ever release that product at all.

If you come across areas you’re unfamiliar with or don’t know how to do, consider outsourcing that work. Now, don’t freak out about this. If you have someone who is knowledgeable and skillful, they will know what they’re doing.

Let’s say you’re going to produce a video course but you don’t know how to edit. Then hire an editor. If your grammar is weak, like mine, then hire someone to edit your guide or ebook. If you want to clear the audio clarity with your audio course then hire someone to do that too.

Don’t try and be superman/woman with your product and learn how to do everything. Do the parts that you can do and outsource everything else. This is where I got stuck, because I wanted to be the both the creator and designer.

But I quickly found out those two things weren’t going to happen. If I would have just used a site like Elance.com and hired someone to do the extra work, the whole project would have been Finished a lot quicker. Don’t make this step more complicated for yourself. Focus on what you’re good at and outsource the rest.

***

Creating your first internet marketing product can be a bit stressful, but if you follow these steps it will lighten your load. Don’t wait to take action. If you want to become someone that’s known in your industry as an expert, then create your own product by finding a winning niche!

Being an affiliate of products your whole internet life isn’t as exciting as creating your products, and no one will recognize you as an expert.

But, if you want to build your brand and be looked to as a prominent expert, then start creating products now. Don’t wait any longer, you could regret it.

The martial arts are particularly well-known for the amount of time and effort it takes to master them. I certainly think that the 10,000 hour rule is accurate here: it takes that long to truly be a master, if not more.

But how long does it take to attain the more accessible goal of becoming a decent expert in a martial arts style?

Fortunately, a lot less than it takes to be a master, and I’ve seen it happen very quickly.

The Long Path

My background includes over a decade of mixed martial arts experience, particularly in the areas of karate, kickboxing, and submission grappling. But admittedly, my heart wasn’t always in it; I started when I was seven years old, and throughout much of my time, while I did attend frequently, I wasn’t devoted to it. Rather, it was school and friends that were at the center of my life.

I only became serious about it as a teenager, rose to the highest rank in my martial arts school, and had our full curriculum known. In fact, my first paid job was as a private lesson martial arts instructor for the school.

We’re talking somewhere around 4,000 hours of time invested over a 12 year period.

But this story isn’t about me – it’s about how I got my butt kicked by someone who became an expert in a fraction of that time!

The Short Path

This story and case study is instead about a guy named Mike. Mike had trained as a kid back when I did, became reasonably proficient, but unlike me, he left after a while and didn’t return for a number of years.

Fast forward a few years, and he came back as a teenager to train again. For whatever reason, he decided to absolutely devote his life to it this time. He started as a white belt again after such a long absence, and had to work his way up from there. I noticed his dedication and saw him getting pretty good, although I eventually switched to a larger school to further my knowledge, and then eventually went off to college.

Four years or so after Mike’s return, I decided to do a meet up and come back to my original school during a summer break to take a few classes and do some full contact sparring and grappling against old friends. I wasn’t actively training, but I was still in shape and still had all the knowledge.

I was surprised to see Mike as the assistant instructor to the school that, just four years ago, he was a white belt at. He confidently taught classes, but the punchline came when I got to submission grapple him after a few days.

We prepared and began grappling in front of the head instructor, and I quickly found out that this was going to be ridiculous. Now, he had a 40+ pound weight advantage on me, but that’s never stopped me before and doesn’t work as an excuse. He was in perfect shape and incredibly strong, but even from an expertise perspective, he was using the most advanced moves on the curriculum, and even moves that were new to the school that I was unfamiliar with after my absence. At one point during the match, he did such a spectacularly clean and exotic take down that I literally commented on how awesome that was in the middle of the fight.

I put up a good match, countered his moves, but ultimately after 5-6 minutes or so, he landed me in an advanced submission move that forced me to tap out. One of my strongest abilities is not getting tapped out; I’ve never excelled at offense but in terms of defense, submissions were particularly rare for me. But he broke through that and landed a clean submission.

A guy who was a white belt a few years prior.

A year later, he began operating his own martial arts school, and began successfully fighting in highly competitive tournaments. It took him only perhaps 2 years to become an expert, 3-4 years to become a rather advanced expert, and now he’s on his way to mastery.

How to Shorten Your Path

If you’re interested in becoming an expert in any martial art, whether it’s kickboxing or Wing Chun, or just about any sport for that matter, there are some points worth making:

1. Devotion matters more than time

It’s the quality of hours spent, not the quantity. For my 4,000 hours or so of training, only the last 1,000 really mattered. Those were the hours where I had it actively in my mind to be the best at what I was doing, whereas the previous few thousand hours were just as a hobby or past time.

Mike showed this dedication perfectly. He was never extraordinary when he was younger, but when he came back into martial arts, for whatever reason he had it in his mind that he would become a master at this.

It’s an awesome example of someone clearly choosing what he wanted to do in life and sticking to it.

For every class, he intensely focused and never took shortcuts, and outside of class he did additional studying. He improved his diet to act as a tailwind, rather than a headwind, to his training. True dedication.

2. The quality of the instructor matters

At one point back when Mike was just getting back into things as a white belt, I was studying for a second degree black belt exam, and the exam consisted entirely of full-contact kickboxing and grappling against second and third degree black belt students.

Like most people, I didn’t pass the first time, and I didn’t pass the second time. Not only that, but I didn’t feel like I was making any progress. I was the highest rank in my fairly small school with a teacher who was an expert but not a master, so I made the difficult decision to train elsewhere under someone who was well over the master threshold.

In six months of training at the new place, I practically doubled my ability. When I took the second degree test for the third time, it was very easy to pass. It’s not that I learned new moves, it’s that I learned intricate details on how to improve my moves that only a master could notice.

Beyond that, and probably most importantly, it was my confidence that was dramatically increased. Training under a master, and training with some slightly more advanced students, allows you to get a better level of confidence of your ability, with I’d estimate counts for at least 25% of success in a difficult fight. Whether it’s fighting a difficult opponent or lifting a heavy weight, the psychological assurance of being able to do it gets you over that last mile.

Both physically and psychologically, when it comes to martial arts instruction, you need a genuine master to take you to the higher levels.

3. Choose your style wisely

Not all styles suit the same purpose. Some are based on tradition and may or may not even include full contact fighting, whereas other styles focus almost purely on modern ways to defeat an opponent in a match or on the street. Some styles fall somewhere between those points.

So, when picking a style, make sure you know what you’re getting into. If practical self defense is your purpose, then modern styles that do full-contact sparring or grappling are likely going to benefit you greatly. Softer styles or traditional styles can be great if you’re looking for a broader exposure to the art.

***

When everything aligns, from the right devotion to the right teacher to the right style, you can become rather proficient within a few years.

Women usually love what they buy, yet hate two-thirds of what is in their closets. ~ Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

You’re standing in front of your open closet and wondering why you don’t have anything to wear. Sounds familiar?

You’re not alone, if you’re a woman at least.

A recent study has shown that the average woman spends about $104,000 on clothes in a lifetime. Yet 60% of women still feel like they don’t have anything to wear. That’s a bit odd, right?

Even though most of us have a closet that’s overflowing with clothes we don’t feel like we own enough clothes. But the problem isn’t really the amount of clothing that we have, it’s more likely the type of clothing. You might have a full closet, but not very many staple items.

80% of your outfits are put together by 20% of your clothes. These 20% are the clothes you pull out again and again despite the amount of choices you have.

Imagine if those 20% of your closet consisted of great quality and versatile basics, easy to combine and appropriate for nearly any occasion. Your life would be a whole lot easier. Because you’re using just a fraction of your closet, you don’t have to get a complete wardrobe make-over, just replace your old 20% with some staple pieces to build a wardrobe that gives you plenty of options.

Step 1: Decide on Your Wardrobe Staples

Before you go shopping you need to know what items to look for. Grab a pen and create a list of all the basic pieces you always wanted to have in your closet. The key is to only put basic items on the list, meaning classic pieces in neutral colors that can be worn on many occasions. A typical list for women would include a pair of dark denims, a little black dress, a white button up top, a neutral cardigan, and so on.

Depending on the length of your list you can either narrow the list down to a number of pieces that you’re comfortable spending money on right now, or you can keep the list and work your way down in the coming weeks and months.

Step 2: Pick 1-3 High Quality Brands That You Love

This is a very important step as you’ll be purchasing your wardrobe staples from these brands and these brands only. If we want to create a fashionable wardrobe, we’ll have to do quite a bit of shopping so we want to be strategic about it. Narrowing down the number of stores to shop at is a very important step in simplifying the process.

Pick brands that offer high quality clothing. You’ll be wearing your basics a lot so you want them to last long and feel great. Also don’t be shy to pick brands that you’d usually find a bit over your budget, we’ll talk about a way to get your clothes cheaper in a minute.

Make sure that the brands you choose fit your fashion taste. You shouldn’t pick a brand solely on pricing and quality, you need to enjoy the clothes they offer or otherwise you’re never going to wear the pieces you buy. That would defeat the purpose of our mission.

Step 3: Go Clothes Hunting

This is when the real work begins. It’s also the fun part, especially if you’re a woman.

To make sure that you suceed it’s important to operate acording to some rules. What does your average shopping trip look like? Do you go out to buy one specific item and end up with a few items that have nothing to do with your mission but looked “oh so cute”? Yeah. That shouldn’t happen if you follow the strategies below.

Rule #1: Only Do Online Shopping

Online shopping is fast and convenient. It elliminates the time you’d spend driving, walking around and eating pizza on a traditional shopping tour.

It also minimizes the risk of impulse buys as you won’t be able to take the clothes home immediately. You’ll have to wait for them coming to you in the mail. Maybe that pink pair of high heels won’t look so compelling anymore after a few days of waiting.

Be sure to check the delivery options of the online shops you chose. Sometimes you’ll get free delivery if your order is big enough. Some stores offer free shipping for their VIP customers. Some have a reward system that will get you reduced prices after you’ve spent a certain amount of money at their shop. To become a member you usually have to hand out your email or your mailing address. Since you’re only purchasing your clothes from 1-3 stores this shouldn’t flood your inbox.

Important: Check the return policy to see how much time you have to return the clothes you don’t want to keep. This is critical as you might otherwise end up with a bunch of unwanted clothes that you have to pay for.

Rule #2: Always Buy on Sale

Buying on sale allows you to save a lot of money and buy more and better quality clothes. I haven’t paid full price for a clothing item in a year. It’s not as complicated as you might think and once you get the hang of it you won’t want to do it any other way.

Most people think that buying on sale means going through the leftovers of the last collection. The truth is, you can get items from the nearly all the current collections on sale. In fact there’s nearly always a sale going on, whether it’s a mid-season sale, some special offers for valentines day or an exclusive pre sale for their newsletter subscribers.

Shopping on sale is not as convenient as paying full price, but the the extra effort is definitely worth it, especially if you’re on a budget. If you have $30 to spend on a new cardigan you can either buy a cheap one for the regular price at Forever 21 or get a good quality one on sale at Ann Taylor -for the same price. If you’re willing to accept the quality of the Forever 21 cardigan as good enough, you could get yourself two cardigans for your $30 if you bought them on sale.

Sure, you won’t get the hottest trends right when they come out, but you won’t have to wait long either. Besides, every collection includes some staple items which makes it less important to buy from the current collection.

Before you finish your order, check coupon sites, apps and newsletters for additional discount codes or free shipping.

Rule #3: Look for Clothes with a Twist

Even though you’re shopping for basics, that doesn’t mean you should buy plain and boring items.

In fact, it’s important to look for clothes with a twist, that have little details that you like about them. This is important as you have to really like the pieces so you’ll want to grab and wear them whenever you see them sitting in your closet. Otherwise you’ll end up with a ton of clothes that you don’t really want to wear. You’ll end up where you are now, spending a lot of time in front of your closet struggling to pick an outfit.

Hello stressful Monday mornings!

Rule #4: The Love it or Leave it Test

When you shop online you’ll get the order delivered right to your door steps. While this is convenient it runs the risk of keeping pieces you wouldn’t normally buy just because it’s so easy to hang them in your closet. To prevent piling on a ton of unwanted clothes I came up with a little test that I do whenever I get a package in the mail. After I have tried on all of the clothes and have put back the ones I definitely don’t want to keep, I put the box and all the clothes out of sight for three days.

If I think of a specific item several times during that time I take it as a sign that I really want it, and I allow myself to keep it. If I don’t think of an item several times I have to send it back.

Make sure that you don’t go to long before reevaluating your order, otherwise you might forget about it and miss the return deadline. This happened to me a lot in the beginning and I can tell you, it sucks.

Rule #5: Only Keep Pieces that Fit You Perfectly

You’ll never want to keep an item that you don’t feel fully comfortable in, whether it be because of it’s material, style or fit. If you do you’re not going to wear it and you’ll end up tossing it out after a year of trying it on and hanging it back into your closet.

Even if you’d decide to wear something that doesn’t really fit you that won’t make it better. Wearing clothes that are two sizes too small or too big never makes you look good. A piece that fits you like it was tailor-made on contrary has the nice side effect of making you look very polished.

***

If you follow this guide you should have a fashionable wardrobe in no time.

Build from there and you’ll never experience any “I have NOTHING to wear” moments ever again. I promise. Even if you don’t use all of the exact strategies shared here, you’ll still experience a good level of improvement.

Do you feel like your closet is stuffed yet you still have nothing to wear? Have you ever tried a strategy to change that? If yes, please share in the comments and if not, just tell us your worst “What should I wear” moment.

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When a small child is in pain, emotional or physical, we can often relieve it with a simple distraction: a song, a piece of food, a book, or a bright shiny object. The effect can be dramatic and the pain is forgotten or diminished to the point that it’s hardly felt.

As adults we do the same thing to avoid or relieve pain. We distract ourselves with something more appealing than what we have going on at that time. A webpage or six, social media, a piece of food, a drink, or a bigger bright shiny object than we might use with a child.

The pain of doing a tax return, making sales calls, developing a product, or even writing a blog entry can all be relieved with such things. It’s the Law of Distraction. Procrastination if you prefer.

We Still Get By

For the most part, such procrastination slows things down but doesn’t bring us to a halt. Tax returns get done, albeit at the last minute; sales calls are made, though just enough to get by; the product gets developed, eventually; and the blog entry gets published, finally. The procrastination slows us down but we still get by.

For entrepreneurs and the self-employed there is often a deeper level of pain with a more subtle level of proscrastination that does more than just slow us down; it keeps us stuck.

Ironically this pain is caused by the very success we might be pursuing, whether it be financial, creative, physical, relational or otherwise. On one hand we might say we want these things we are pursuing but on the other hand there might be an associated pain – the discomfort of change, fear of the unknown, and uncertainty.

Usually this pain or fear will be below the surface, often overshadowed by the excitement of the goal we are pursuing. But the ego doesn’t miss a trick. It’s primary goal is safety and protection. So, it uses the same old tactics, distractions, to relieve the pain of change and uncertainty.

We find ourselves drawn to a training course that we “must do” to help us reach our goal. A business opportunity comes up that’s even better than the one we are working on now so we drop the current project and move on to the next one. The latest cutting edge marketing program appears. It promises to
be much better than what we were doing so we stop and go back to square one with the latest and greatest.

Sound familiar? These are the bright shiny objects of the self-employed and entrepreneurs. The distractions that help ease or avoid the pain we don’t even know we are feeling.

My coach and mentor, Derek Rydall, calls them ’tricks of the ego that keep us where we are while giving the illusion we are moving forward‘.

We pay a heavy price for this relief in time, money and lost opportunities. In return we get superficial and short term satisfaction at the expense of a deeper sense of fulfillment and purpose.

So What’s the fix?

Become present to the fear and discomfort that comes with taking risks.

• Are you unconsciously holding your breath for no reason?
• Do you find yourself more restless and agitated than you normally might be?
• Spending more time staring into the fridge than you normally would?
• Constantly checking your email or twitter feed hoping for a bright shiny object to magically appear and distract you from the task at hand?

These are all signs of discomfort wanting to be felt. You can of course ignore them and go for the distractions, the bright shiny objects. Alternatively, you can feel the uncomfortable feelings and thus make progress to heal them at the same time.

The goal isn’t to make the feelings of discomfort go away, its simply to make them known so you are fully aware of what’s going on and what’s driving you.

From this place you can recognize the bright shiny objects for what they are. If they truly support you, you can take them as a conscious choice.

But, if they’re just a distraction, a form of pain relief, you can pass them by knowing that your awareness of the pain is relief enough. That’s how you master the law of distraction.

What could you start doing to keep yourself from getting distracted and to procrastinate less often?

Most guys in the gym go about breaking personal bests the wrong way. They think they can just waltz into the gym and turn on ‘H.A.M.’ mode like a tap. They think if they ‘think’ they’re going to break their personal best that day, they can.

It doesn’t work like that.

The human mind is very complex. We all need ulterior motivations whether we admit it or not. We all need something that gives us that drive.

That FIRE.

Before I get onto actually breaking your personal bests in the gym, let’s talk about what it actually means.

It’s a warm Monday morning and you’re doing bench press. Your previous best was 250 lbs for 8 reps.

Today you manage 260 lbs for the same 8 reps. That would make 260lbs for 8 reps your new personal best. Now here’s another problem I’m starting to see with dudes at the gym.

You’ll ask them ‘What’s your personal best at bench press?’ and they’ll reply with their best. Then you’ll find out that their best is a one-rep-max.

A one rep max is trying to push the maximum amount of weight for one rep.

To be honest, if you’re not a power lifter I would NOT count that as your personal best. The average gym-goer does not perform one rep exercises. Your personal best should be within the rep range that you do every time you set foot in the gym.

Well, enough about what personal bests are… you want to know HOW you achieve them.

Make Yourself Angry

I’m sure if you’ve ever been involved in fight you have experienced this phenomena. You’re the calmest person in the land, you’re not a fighter, nothing fazes you and you simply don’t get mad…..until someone says something that pushes your buttons.

You want to fight.

You get MAD.

You become Mike Tyson, Overeem and Bruce Lee rolled into one.

This is the power of anger. Anger can literally turn you into a monster. The reason why this happens is because anger increases your adrenaline level. Your body goes into this mode when it senses danger.

When you’re in the French Alps on a two thousand metre high mountain slope skiing down for the first time, you’ll be high on adrenaline.

When you’re walking alone, at 4am, down a dark alley, you’re going to be high on adrenaline.

In a sense, adrenaline is almost a superpower. Your senses become more acute to your surroundings, you’re stronger, and you’re faster.

It’s one of the many wonders of the human body.

But how can this be utilised in the gym?

A great way to KILL it in the gym with anger is to get MAD in the gym. One way I get mad is to remember those years of failure I had before I became somewhat happy with my physique.

I remember the fat rolls when I sat down. I remember the chubby face. I remember sloppy chest. I imagine what I would feel like if I was magically returned that stage.

I get MAD.

We all have insecurities and other things that make us mad. It’s your duty to hone in on these and really get your blood boiling.

Create a ‘Killer’ Gym Playlist

The Zone: What is it?

I believe you can only reach ‘the zone’ once you are completely in the present. You forget about the past and the future.

All that matters is you and your weights. That’s all you know. Having extended conversations, excessive water breaks, and long resting periods all damage your chances of staying in the zone.

Wanna know the best way to stay in the zone?

Music.

Create a gym playlist and make sure you only play those selection of songs in the gym. This is so your mind builds an association between the song and killing it in the gym.

Music helps clear your mind of outside distractions. But it’s important that you play the right kind of music.

You want hectic music.

You don’t really want music that is going to calm you down or make you serene. No Nicki Minaj or Beiber either!

Your Turn

If you follow the steps I laid out for you, you’ll be breaking your personal records on lifts in no time.

Of course, it also depends on how much sleep you get, your diet and your training too.

As a coach and mentor to people with social anxiety, I’ve gotten good at helping people make progress towards a life where anxiety no longer dominates their day-to-day experience.

It’s a life full of suffering for these people, and if they are able to overcome their usually extreme anxiety, what I’m presenting here will be like a shotgun for blasting away the day-to-day anxieties of life for you.

I used to suffer from social anxiety myself, and it’s been quite a journey. There are days that I still struggle with generalized anxiety, but it’s not a problem like it used to be and I’m happy to be able to share what I know with you here.

The Nature of Anxiety

Anxiety is purely a future-based emotion. It’s based on the fear of uncertainty; fear that the future will or won’t turn out the way we want; and to the extreme if we aren’t prepared, we’ll die.

Anxiety as a short-term emotion is actually a beneficial thing in terms of human evolution; it helps protect us from threats in the world that could endanger our lives.

People that suffer with anxiety don’t have a problem with the emotion per say, it’s the long-term mood of anxiety that’s the issue. Of course, the threats aren’t actually endangering their lives, but when someone is living in a mood of anxiety, their biology reacts as if their life is constantly under threat, putting a lot of stress on the biological system.

Anxiety: Emotion vs. Mood

Both biology and psychology tell us that the emotion of anxiety is hard-wired and we need it to survive. When the mood of anxiety pervades one’s life, then it’s hard to tell when anxiety is useful and when it is not; it’s hard to see if a perceived threat is one that actually puts us in danger, or is merely a phantom of the mind.

Let me give you a couple examples:

A Real Threat

In your neighborhood, there’s been a series of break-ins and robberies. You hear that the assailant has been armed and thus you are worried that it could happen to you, so you begin taking precautions and moving into action to protect you, your family and those in your neighborhood (i.e. making sure all windows are closed, doors are locked, setting up a neighborhood watch).

This is an anxiety that serves you well; aka rational anxiety.

The False Threat

I’ll use social anxiety as the example here. You have to go to the grocery store because you’re almost out of food. Because you think people are judging you and may think you are weird, you are afraid to go to the store and have massive amounts of anxiety over this.

Even though your life isn’t at risk, this deep feeling of anxiety is tied to people as a “social threat” as if they’ll tell others and you think you’ll have a social death. The socially anxious person lives in a state of “fight or flight” and it’s very taxing on their entire system (also known as a sympathetic response).

Outside looking in, this doesn’t make any sense, but to someone with social anxiety it is very real; IT IS REALITY.

So this ongoing, pervasive mood of anxiety clearly doesn’t serve the person. It prevents them from doing simple things like leaving the house to run a basic errand. This anxiety doesn’t serve well and is an irrational fear.

Unwire Anxiety in Day-to-Day Life

Hopefully, you don’t have to overcome social anxiety like I did. But most of us do suffer with the stresses and fast pacing of our modern world, so if you can relate on any level to feeling anxiety and overwhelm just from living in our time, the below will help you.

Here are several methods, and when combined, can be very powerful in shifting away from anxiety and into a more flowing and easy life.

1. Optimal Breathing

If you’ve done any type of self-help work at all, you’ve heard about the importance of proper breathing. In order not to sound like a broken record I’ll try to be fresh here. In the book Free Your Breath, Free Your Life Dennis Lewis talks of ways to retrain our breathing to optimal rates. The research Lewis provides shows that practicing belly-breathing at about a rate of six breaths per minute (4 seconds inhale, 6 seconds exhale) can keep us in a more relaxed state, and can also help shut off any fight or flight response we might be living in.

So taking time away every day for 21 days – about 10-12 minutes each time – to sit down and practice optimal breathing, can literally help us reprogram our breathing rate as well as our nervous system so we are in a more constantly relaxed state.

NOTE: I recently worked with a biofeedback specialist she said it’s more like 6-12 breaths per minute, depending on a person’s size and thus the size of the lungs, so you need to tune into a rate that feels relaxing and comfortable for you.

2. Thought-Handling

There are two main approaches to handling thoughts.

The first approach is to actively dispute or challenge the anxiety-inducing (negative) thought, the other is to let the thought pass or not buy into the thought. Both require a certain degree of awareness, realizing that your thoughts (for the most part) make up your reality and how you react to what shows up in life.

A) Challenging Your Thoughts: This is a classic technique that I originally learned from the late great Albert Ellis, founder of Rational Emotive Therapy. In his ABC model of the human mind in working with beliefs, Ellis says that there an activating event (A) which filters through the belief (B) which causes a consequence that results in another thought or feeling, in this case anxiety. Ellis says that since we can’t change the activating event, we have to intervene at the belief (thought) level.

So, when you notice you are in a highly anxious state and your mind says “I’ve got to get this done now, or I’ll be a failure” then it’s time to challenge that thought and find a better explanation. You very actively stop and dispute the conversation and say something like “No! There’s no evidence for this! I’m making this up!”

The key is not to challenge (attack) yourself, but to challenge the thought. You are not the thought itself. This approach can be very effective, though it takes more energy to do then the next approach. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.

B) Defusing from Thoughts: With the growing popularity of mindfulness practice in the West, this is a way of letting go of the thought without fighting it, by practicing not attaching to any thoughts at all. In a very powerful approach known as Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, this is called “thought defusion”. The idea here is that in the moment a thought arises like }I have to get this done now, or I’ll be a failure” you simply notice it and let it pass.

The key is not to fight it directly, though you can say to yourself a gentle “no, I’m not going there” or “I’m not buying that”. The attitude here is very different than the thought challenging above. The important part of this process is to remain gentle and self-compassionate. Many teachers and therapists think that it’s the underlying energy or attitude that is detrimental, and how one attaches to the thought stream itself is the problem.

If you actively push against the anxiety inducing thoughts (even with a corrected thought), mindfulness-based therapists say that the mind will turn against you, playing mental Ping-Pong between the positive and the negative. It’s this ending of the mindful battle by not taking sides, whether good or bad, that is the power of defusing from thoughts. With defusion we are changing the relationship to the thought itself, instead of changing its content.

Of course the age old practice of meditation can’t be beat for retraining the mind. Modern mindfulness-based trainings and therapies also offer more modern exercises that can be fun and very easy to learn in order to get good at the skillset of letting thoughts go.

I’ve used both approaches outlined above, and both can work. I don’t recommend one over the other, but I suggest you try them alone and then in combination. Being who I am now, I tend to go with defusion first because it’s easier to let something go then to fight it and I can take that energy focusing on what I want to do, instead of fighting my mind. But there are times when I’ve been down in the muck and mire of anxiety; I’ve needed a more active push of thought challenging to snap me out of it. Sometimes you just gotta fight for your right to reeeee-lax!

3. Shift Your Body

As a transformational coach I work often with the way a client shows up in their body, especially as they are associated with an emotional or mood state. This form of somatic coaching is very powerful, when focusing on the body in a whole sense (the soma). Both in psychology and coaching this is a field known as somatics.

When approaching anxiety somatically, we can do things like working with the body in the mirror, noticing how we stand when we’re anxious and overwhelmed. Then shifting into a state we deem relaxed and practicing going between the two.

It’s not about forcing yourself to be relaxed (an oxymoron, obviously). It’s all about mindful, subtle shifts; practicing a new way of being. I don’t really recommend the forced, fake it til you make it approach, it’s not necessary if we practice in the domain of the body properly. It’s about attaching the body to a thought or belief you want to embody like everything’s OK, there no need to panic, I’m not in danger.

Martial arts practices like centering and grounding are amazing for bringing new awareness to how we show up in the body. This alone can be extremely powerful at eliminating anxiety, especially if practiced every day for even as little as five minutes in the morning and five at night.

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So there you have it. No matter which method or combinations you explore, you’ve got to practice, practice, practice to incorporate the methods into your life. You can play with those three methods in any combination you like to reduce the stress of daily anxiety, and be more relaxed, productive and fulfilled.

Have you struggled with anxiety? Have any techniques or methods that you use every day that you’d like to share? Take part in the comment conversation below and let’s discuss.

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On several occasions in my life I have failed miserably.

My most embarrassing situation: I failed passing the driver’s ed test.

At the age of 17 this is a catastrophe. As a youngster you think getting the driver license is synonymous with becoming an adult. I felt miserable falling short. It gave me a huge blow to my sense of self-worth.

Most people perceive failures as moments of great powerlessness. After a defeat, most of us will have trouble to keep going with enthusiasm and energy.

Winston Churchill once said:

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

Well spoken – but hard to do.

Here are some important tips of how to successfully deal with failure:

1. Make room for feelings

If something really went to pot, it is entirely normal for you to feel rage, disappointment and sadness shortly afterward. We all have to process this in our own way. If you feel like doing so, go ahead and give your frustrations free reign – but this is best done behind closed doors.

Others may need time to themselves, or may feel the need to blow off steam by exercising. You need to take this time. Never let your emotions show in a business environment. If you are heavily affected by a failure, withdraw, and, if need be, allow your emotions free reign – but only in private.

2. Focus on the failure, not the person

Anyone can fail, but they should not be labeled as a loser.

Differentiate between your actions and your persona. The internal human values do not change with failure!

3. Identify the worst possible outcome

If you are afraid of the impact of failure, draw up a picture of the various bad things that can happen.

You should also think through completely exaggerated scenarios. You will notice that this actually has a calming effect. You will realize that none of these things will actually kill you.

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”
- Bill Cosby

4. Allow yourself to fail

Anyone who wants to succeed must accept failure.

The desire to avoid failure at all costs will most certainly end in failure!

5. Do not fret over your failure

Accept the defeat. If the original objective cannot be met, then let it go.

“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.”
- George Edward Woodberry

6. Anything meaningful carries risk

Anyone who fails has first taken a risk. Anything worth doing is accompanied by the risk of failure.

Successful people are not successful because they suffer fewer defeats than less successful people. They experience more failures – but they will not submit and keep picking themselves back up.

“Don’t be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.”
- Lily Tomlin

7. Avoid excuses and assigning blame

Don’t look for excuses and don’t look for blame with others. Passing blame will not help you. By doing so, you only end up handing control over to others, and you will be unable to recognize mistakes that you can learn from.

8. What can I learn from this?

Ask yourself: Why did I fail? What should I have done differently to avoid this? What will I do differently next time?

“Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.”
- Mia Hamm

9. Create some leeway for action

Figure out what options you have in spite of a defeat. Look into the future and set new objectives!

“We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do.”
- Samuel Smiles

10. What positive could come of this?

There is little point in asking this question immediately after a failure. You are still dealing with disappointment, anger and sorrow. But this question can be very useful after some time has passed.

Try to find out what positive could come from your failure. I promise you this much: You will be amazed by what you come up with.

***

How do you deal with failure? What have you learned from your defeats?

That might seem like a silly question, but really, if you sit down and think about it, how did positive emotions come about?

I mean, we know why negative emotions evolved, right? If our ancestors didn’t have fear, anxiety, or dread, we probably wouldn’t be here because they would have been dinner for the local saber-toothed tiger.

The negative emotions helped generate the fight-or-flight mechanism: the narrowed focus, increased heart rate, and shot of adrenaline that was needed to make a decision and act on it quickly.

But what about positive emotions?

Love, joy, and happiness are wonderful to experience. But, think about the saber-toothed tiger again. Where would feeling love and thinking “what a beautiful kitty” get you?

You know the answer to that.

It turns out that positive emotions have a solid evolutionary background, too. University of North Carolina researcher Barbara Frederickson has done immense amounts of research to show that positive emotions not only feel good, they’re extremely adaptive, too.

When we feel love, joy, and happiness, we calm our cardiovascular systems and expand our mindsets which leads to better problem-solving abilities.

We also feel more socially open, which attracts more friends and people who want to help us.

Frederickson says that positive emotions create an “upward spiral” of increasingly better life satisfaction.

And – get this – you can actually “undo” the physical effects of your negative emotions by feeling more positive than negative emotions.

There’s even a ratio – 3:1.

Three positive emotions to one negative emotion undoes all that stress you put on your heart and the rest of your body when you get all hung up on something.

Since researchers tend to leave no stone unturned, we now know the three ways that can best generate positive emotions.

1. Notice Positive Moments

Ever notice that when you’re walking down the street you either walk with your head down or you’re so far off in your own thoughts that you have no idea what’s happening around you?

Take a look around and notice.

See a stranger smile at you and smile back.

Check out the father cooing over his baby as he gently swings her in his arms.

Look up and notice the cool architecture of that building you walk by every day.

Pause to notice a beautiful sunset.

At work, really take it in when your boss or co-worker gives you a compliment.

Don’t let those positive moments pass you by. Learn to see them more clearly and frequently. Savor them as you would a piece of decadent chocolate on your tongue.

2. Be Mindful

You’ve probably heard this a lot.

What is mindfulness, anyway? Doesn’t that have to do with meditation?

Well, it certainly can. But it doesn’t necessarily have to.

Mindfulness is simply about noticing the present moment without judgment.

One of the reasons negative emotions stress us out is because we not only experience the emotion, but we pile more negative stuff up on top of it.

So, if you notice that you’re frustrated, you might think to yourself, “Ugh, I’m so frustrated! I’ve got to get over feeling this way. If I could just get this project to work right, things would be better.”

And on and on and on…

Mindfulness calls for you to notice that you’re frustrated and… that’s it.

There’s no judgment about what you’re feeling. Only noticing.

“Oh. I’m frustrated.”

No piling on of desperate wishes that you weren’t feeling that way. No berating yourself for feeling frustrated in the first place.

Just noticing.

Mindfulness allows you to be in the present without magnifying it. And that helps reduce stress and makes room for positive emotions.

I’ll give you an example.

The other day I was working at my desk and I could feel my anxiety level rising because I had so much to do that I couldn’t see how I was going to get it all done. I wasn’t sure how to prioritize it, so I was starting to reach the point at which I just freeze and don’t do anything.

I remembered to practice mindfulness so I took a deep breath and came back from my catastrophizing and into the present moment.

I felt my anxiety and consciously didn’t add anything to it. Just felt it.

After a few minutes of being aware of my thoughts, I realized that all I could do was what was in front of me, nothing more.

No point in living in the future when the present is here now.

Within a very short period of time, my anxiety dropped and a feeling of peace replaced it as I became aware of how my negative emotions had spiraled out of control because of all the extra emphasis I was placing on them.

Practicing mindfulness through meditation does help, but you can also practice it spontaneously just by coming back to your current thoughts and feelings to just notice them.

Without judgment.

3. Practice Acts of Kindness

You’ve probably heard or seen the popular slogan, “Practice random acts of kindness.”

Well, I want you to practice intentional acts of kindness.

Okay, random ones are good, too.

But research has shown that being intentional about acting in a kind way is one of the best ways to generate positive emotions for yourself. So try:

• Volunteering at a non-profit.
• Tutoring at-risk kids.
• Help the woman juggling her purse, her baby, and her shopping bags get her groceries to the car.

A leading researcher on happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky, has found that doing several acts of kindness on one day rather than spreading them out throughout the week provides the greatest bump in positive emotions.

So you may want to designate one day of the week as your “acts of kindness” day and be more consciously aware of how you can be kind to others on that day.

Positive emotions are the way to better life satisfaction.

So get out there and try these three hacks. You’ll end up feeling really good about them.

What do you do on a daily basis to stay positive? What do you tell yourself when you are feeling down?