I started rereading Think & Grow Rich, and I’ve been following the steps outlined in the book. The second activity I’ve been doing that is impacting me the most is physical exercise. Yup. I gave up the soda and I’ve been getting up every morning and jogging/walking. I’ve been increasing my distance too. Today I walked a total of 5.70 miles for example. And I feel great. The third thing I’m doing is trying to form a new sleep habit. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise as the old adage goes. Well it’s 100% true.   It’s a lot easier to be positive and focused when your physically healthy. When your body is healthy, your mind will start to get healthier. You’ll be able to focus easier on tasks. Fourth activity I’m doing is reading a statement out loud to myself, once in the morning and once in the evening. Check out the video below:

And finally the fifth activity I’m doing is READING. What good will it do me if I work out and put junk into my brain. So many people who are health minded are not health minded about their most important asset, THEIR MIND. So I am attempting to improve my mentallity by reading books that help me grow and by listening to motivational speakers, such as Zig Ziglar.

You see it’s easier to stay up than it is to get up. A plane generally expends the most fuel and energy getting off the ground and making altitude till it reaches cruising altitude. It’s the same with us, I tried a couple of times without putting the necessary energy into getting myself off the ground and failed. But if you put the right amount of energy into it, you’ll notice results in your life within the first week. I surely am.

It is a wonderful thing to dream, but it’s an even better thing to act upon those dreams. Throughout my life I’ve dreamed of a certain lifestyle, certain freedoms and the chance to do the extraordinary, but it wasn’t until after college that I realized dreams were just realities waited to be acted upon. This realization changed my life, up until about 21 I’d always assumed that you could dream but life happened to you regardless. This couldn’t be further from the truth and as I ‘wake up’ more and more from the fog of ‘the real world’ I see that your life can be as big as you dream it but your dreams can only be as big as you are willing to act upon.

This is actually reason for celebration, it means you don’t have to wake up everyday and think ‘what will life hand me today’ instead you can literally happen to life, all it takes are baby steps. The way I act upon my dreams is three fold, I’ll explain my ‘action plan’ below:

1. Quantify the dream. Don’t say ‘I want to be rich and happy’ you must find ways to measure how rich and what ‘happiness’ looks like. So when you have a dream immediately put it onto paper and force yourself to quantify it. Now ‘I want to be rich and happy’ turns into ‘I want to have $100,000 in the bank in 2 years and I want to have met and married my dream girl’.
2. Map out the dream. So now that you know what ‘rich’ and ‘happy’ look like you can start to draw a plan (the more detailed the better) to get there. If you are driving somewhere you’ve never been you’d be a fool to not have a map (or mapquest) so why in life if you are heading towards a goal you’ve never achieved before would you leave the specifics to chance? It’s foolish, and more important it’s laziness masking itself with titles like ‘carefree’. So now assess your life as it stands, say you are working a job that pays $12 an hour part time, you aren’t going to get to your monetary goal this way so it’s time to change course. Develop an action plan based on what you like to do and what could possibly bring in extra income, then follow that plan to the T. What helps me is reading success stories, it not only inspires you but helps get your creative juices flowing about the hows of your specific goal. Secondly you want to meet and marry your dream girl, well if your single right now – or not with your dream girl – you’ll have to change course fast. Start meeting new people, go to a match maker, check out a dating site, ask your friends to set you up and actively search out the girl of your dreams vs. waiting on ‘chance’.
3. Live the dream. Now as you act every day on these goals it is time to live ‘as if’, this means reminding yourself all the time of what your life will look like in 2 years and why you are going for those goals. It means not worry about finances or finding the right girl anymore because you know deep down in 2 years time you’ll be there. Thinking as if is a vital part of reaching your goals but must be paired with quantification and mapping out your dream… if it isn’t you aren’t ‘living as if’ your delusional

Now it’s time for you to act, comment below on at least one of your dreams and quantify it. In a month or so come back and reply with any progress you’ve made, this social pressure alone will help you push yourself out of your comfort zone and into the land of the living. It is time to seize your dreams, it’s time to stop moping and stop making excuses – nothing is impossible when you pair an ardent dream with incredible action.

Anyways, I love cars. I’ve owned two Camaro’s a 1989 Camaro and a 1987 IROC-Z which I was particularly found of. These two cars spawned my love for all things American Muscle. I later ended up purchasing an 1994 Pontiac Trans Am (I learned the LT1 is a horrible motor btw.) and a 2001 Mustang GT convertible which I was also very fond of. These cars spawned a real love for the road and for SPEED.

Needless to say, plenty of speeding tickets later, and a job loss which resulting in rapid decline of income, and I was reduced to driving a hand me down mini-van for three years until I got myself back on my feet.

The first car I was able to afford after that, I purchased really out of neccisity. I had gotten more into outdoor activities and adopted my dog Shelby, so I bought a used 1992 Oldsmobile Bravada from a friend. It was nice owning a car again that I enjoyed and actually paid for.

Leather seats, all-wheel drive, sunroof, it was a fun little truck for me and shelby to hit the trails in.

That car served it purpose, and then I might my wife, and today I’m in a different sitution finacally. In November of 2009 I bought my 2001 Audi A4. My first import ever. I got the car because we needed a car, and not another SUV, and I also wanted something that presented a professional image. I chose this car over a BMW becuase it was cheaper, handled better and let’s face it every yupie on the road with a bluetooth headset drives a BMW.

Me and my wife are thinking about buying a Hummer H3 and after driving the Audi for a couple of months, my car obbesion is resurfacing. I keep thinking of mods I can do to the car. Bigger turbo, bigger brakes, lowering springs, rims, exhuast. But you know what really gets me excited?

If I just practice a little delayed gratification, I can probably afford to buy in cash something along the lines of a C5 corvette next year.

Or maybe I should dream bigger. The Audi RS5 is such a sexy car. And going back to my roots, the new 2011 Camaro Convertible is just sexy.

But wait, there’s more! The AUDI R8 is a super car. What a beast!

So many choices, so many cars to chose from.

If you’re wondering what the point of my rambling about cars is, here is the point. Stay focused on what you want. What you really really WANT and ignore how you feel now, it’s the simple practice of delayed gratification.

So you’re wondering, will I buy that Corvette or Camaro next year? Short answer is NO.

Because my heart is set on bigger things. Know your passions, and don’t let them become obsessions, because some passions can be a downright distraction from the things you really want in life.

Most people who try something and then experince failure just give up and quit. That’s the wrong approach. After you experince a failure you need to simply readjust what you are doing and try it again. If you fail again, ADJUST WHAT YOU ARE DOING AGAIN. Keep doing this until you succeed.

I’ve failed in business a couple of times. Most recently I tried to start an IT company with a friend. I very quickly learned that two heads is a monster, especially when you both have different ideas about the direction the company should go. The whole thing turned out to be a big waste of nearly 3 months. Complete failure.

Did I give up and go looking for a job? NO! I adjusted my plan for business, this time, minus the business partner. New name, new plan, new strategy, and now I’m 3 months into a successful web development company.

The simple point here is if you fail, get up and brush the dust off your feet. Take a look at what you did wrong, learn from it. Adjust your plan and try again. If you fail, adjust and try again until you end up with this formula Try = Success!

This is a wrong way of thinking; one that needs to change. If you want something, you’re going to have to go out and make it happen.

I’m learning this first hand. For years I talked about business and being successful. In reality I was waiting for success to land in my lap. I was hoping it would be handed to me with the least effort possible, and in turn my first couple of businesses were mediocre. I applied the least amount of effort to everything I did.

And then one day a light bulb went off.

I’ve found a lot of success already, because I’m pouring blood, sweat and tears into making it happen. I’m getting out there and hitting the pavement, shaking hands, staying up late working on projects, making phone calls, doing follow ups, going to networking events, building my following on twitter, keeping up with it on facebook, etc. I’m putting in the work, not just sitting back and hoping it will come to me. I stay up late and fry my eyes with two 24inch computer screens, doing favors, hoping for some return. I’m taking a huge risk on all of this right now. But with risk, comes great rewards. If this thing is going to happen, I’m going to make it happen.

Now, here’s the deal. We all know this principle. So why are so many of you waiting around for success to land in your lap? Equally, why are so many of you thinking that you should be handed that next big promotion without doing any work?

If you want something, you’re going to have to pursue it. You’re going to have to bleed out of your eyeballs to make it happen. You’re going to have to be relentless in some cases. You’re friends will probably think you are crazy. Forget them. Your friends are probably losers anyways. Stop dreaming pie in the sky and start making the pie. (Does that even make sense?) You’ll probably have to get outside your comfort zone for starters.

My wife wants to buy a Hummer. A freaking Hummer in this economy! And guess what, she’s going to drive a freaking Hummer because WE ARE GOING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Only one way that is going to happen. Not by me sitting around hoping to get lucky, but by me getting out there and MAKING IT HAPPEN.

Stop waiting for lady luck, get up off your ass and MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Word of the wise, there are NO SHORT CUTS to SUCCESS. So avoid the MLM’s.

And why not? I personally think it’s funny that right now as of this posting I’m the mayor of places like the Taj Mahal, the Pyrmaids and the PlayBoy Mansion. Even thought I’ve never physically been to any of these places. TO be honest, cheating has become more and more fun.

I was inspired by a guy called Dr. Cheat who also blogged about it and become the mayor of dozens of places. The problem with Foursquare.com and services like such as Gowalla.com is that there are holes in the validation system. And I found the biggest one of them all. The mobile website. I first learned about this from TechCrunch here: http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/foursquare-cheating/ But you don’t need an API to check in to any place on planet earth, you can do it from your computer, so long as you use some logic.

http://foursquare.com/mobile/venue/485303 < Just use the mobile website.

Now according to TechCrunch I’m pathetic because I’m cheating, but really I just want to say that I personally think there are two problems with the system. One is how easy it is for me to check in everywhere, and the second one is all the people who keep putting their homes on foursquare. We’ve all heard the stories about people who’ve been attacked on myspace, facebook, and other services. Is it a wise idea to put your home on foursqaure?  Maybe you should check out http://pleaserobme.com/ a site setup to show when people aren’t in their homes.

So I have an idea.

Here’s my idea for a solution to this problem. It might not be a great one, or even a good one. But I think zip code based GPS checks for within the US might work with some sort of logic behind it. While I don’t know how to limit check in’s around the rest of the world, why not first force users to use GPS, and second since it can be hard to get a GPS location of your exact position, whats wrong with the general area? Foursquare should be able to figure out there is no way for me to be in Virginia one hour and then 20 minutes later be checking in at SXSW.

So if I check into 23462 which is where I live, I shouldn’t be able to check into Austin Texas at SXSW an hour later. Logic should tell the system that’s not possible. Just my thoughts.

Either way, until a solution is found, I’ll keep checking into the Pyramids until it becomes boring or one of you cleaver folks steals it from me.

Oh, and people who list their homes on foursqaure in my area, I’m checking into your house too! Me being the Mayor of your house should creep you out enough to know better than to put your house on foursquare.

Am I going to stop?

Well maybe… Anyone who knows me knows that I love to travel and explore. It’s part of my heart. And it’s one of the reasons I like the service. For one it let’s me share what I’m doing with friends, and two the things to do and tips can be very useful. I’ve used the service to hunt out some good restaurants locally that I never knew of. And I’m really waiting for the day when the concept of geocaching and foursquare merge. How about finding real prizes besides just badges. A friend of mine went around finding the Red Bull stashes that where hidden in our area recently as part of an advertising campaign. And that plus foursquare got me thinking about how companies could use the service with geocache prizes. If you find and claim it, you check in and receive the one off badge for that location. Plus you got the prize. Anyone else see where this could go?

Normally I don’t blog tech. However I decided recently to start blogging on the things I love, tech, cars, business and lifestyle design.

UPDATE:

I’ve decided to stop cheating for now. I don’t think it’s up to me to expose something that is clearly a problem. But it is a fun problem none the less. It’s a great way to drive your friends nuts. But like I said above, foursquare is selling it’s services to businesses who might offer specials to people who become mayor. It’s so easy to cheat right now that I can only see that as turning out badly for business.

Since I posted this blog, one person has become very upset with me. Sorry!

More Sources:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=foursquare%20cheating << Check out how many people are tweeting about foursquare cheating, it’s a lot.

http://www.examiner.com/x-30565-Montreal-Social-Media-Examiner~y2010m2d17-Foursquare-King-of-North-Pole-controversy-more-about-need-for-recognition-than-cheating

http://gametipcenter.com/how-to-cheat-at-foursquare

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/foursquare-cheating/

http://www.krazydad.com/blog/2010/02/mayor-of-the-north-pole/

If you want to succeed at anything chances are you’re going to have to get outside of your comfort zone and face some fears, take some risks and take some ACTION.

How do you face that fear?

With ACTION!

Stop thinking and trying to rationalize your fears and learn to take immediate action. If you’re afraid to talk to people, then start talking to people. Start by saying hello to random strangers where ever you go. The more action you take the more the fear will cease to be.

When you take action you’ll begin to grow and your comfort zone will begin be stretched. If you really want to grow, get outside your comfort zone and stay there.

Keep taking action. Whatever it is you want to achieve in life, it’s going to have to begin with you taking action. And if fear is the one thing holding you back, then the cure to that fear is ACTION.

Bonus Advice: Desire Follows Direction - You ever have one of those moments when you just don’t feel like doing it, but you know you need to do it? Well JUST DO IT ALREADY. Desire follows direction, act now – feelings later. If you ever did something that you didn’t feel like doing and then later on you usually felt better for doing it, you applied this principle. See your desire and feelings will follow the direction the ACTION you take.

I first learned about this over on the escaping9to5 blog and was just shell shocked. Heck I’ve got like what 43 fans. Whoopie. So I thought I’d let everyone out there know that YOU ARE NOT AS AWESOME AS A PICKLE. (Can you tell I just want someone else to feel as bad as me?)

Truly this is either proof of how viral marketing works, as Maren Kate claims in her blog post, or it’s just proof that people hate Nickleback that much. It may also be that the majority of the population has devolved into a juvenile state as well. I mean have you ever stopped to checkout how many “Fart” apps get downloaded for the iphone.

So this has inspired me to see if it’s possible for me to be more AWESOME as a NINJA than Kayne West!

And why shouldn’t I be, Ninja’s are AWESOME. And we’re fast!

How fast you ask? Well you’ve heard of the speed of light right? Well we’re so fast that we move at the speed of darkness. Yeah, that’s right, the speed of darkness. It takes light from the sun 8 minutes to reach the earth, but do you know what was already here?

DARKNESS! *KAPOW*

Now stop standing around and Friend me up on Facebook!

So I’ve decided to give away a 3 copies of this book over 3 weeks starting today February 8th, 2010. I will pick one winner each Friday of each week. One on the 12th, the 19th and the 26th.

Here is how the contest will work, you MUST (not on or the other, both) do the following two steps in order to qualify:

1. Update your status with the following Tweet: Hey @mike_key, I’m cashing in on my passion and I want a free copy of #CrushIt by @garyvee! Please RT! http://bit.ly/bGzyDU
2. Post a comment below detailing what you think your DNA is, as Gary says “Who are you, based solely on the fact that you popped out of mom?…  What are your 4-7 characteristics strictly based on your D.N.A.?”

Follow me on Twitter or Join the Facebook Community or come back to this page to see if you’ve won! Winners will be announced via my blog, twitter and Facebook, just an FYI.

*If you win, once I contact you, you have two days to reply to me before I pick another winner on the following Monday. Your free book will be drop shipped to you from Amazon.com =)

Announcing our winners! 2 More Books Left

1.) Jessica Swink | twitter @jotwell

2.) Jeremy Wells

3.) Steven Ponec