A healthier me, a healthier you
After recently reading Tim Brownsons blog post, Forgive Me, For I Have Sinned I decided to do some of my own self reflection. A good reason for me starting this blog is to help hold myself accountable for my own life, and to help others learn to choose a path in life they can be happy and proud of living.
I the grand majority of my life have been athletic, soccer, baseball, track, and many of other sports, and “sporty things”. However, as my career as a System Administrator forged forward, I found myself becoming more and more physically lazy. For a while I had a good run meeting a friend at Lifetime Fitness every morning to do laps in the pool (which I have learned to love swimming) however, recently fell off of that boat. Recently though, I have felt my body talking to me, I am not very over weight, if over weight at all, but, I have quit smoking again about 1.5 months ago, and can’t say that my diet has been very healthy. As my stress factors in life lower, and I continue reorganizing my life to live the lifestyle path I choose, I am realizing that there are a lot of other decisions I need to make.
So I have decided to set some goals. I have decided that not the summer of 2009 (because what does 29 mean to anyone?) but the summer of 2010 I plan on participating in a triathlon.
Why a triathlon? I can’t decide what I like better, swimming, biking, or running. So I will do all 3. At once. In the meantime, I will train, find mentors, a prepare myself by running individual races of running, swimming, and bicycling.
In preparation I will need to do the following:
- Eat Better. I currently eat healthier than 99% of the public, fast food is a very rare occurance for me (however, there was a 6 month stint with Steak and Shake I had) But my wife and I tend to eat fairly healthy, she is a health nut and knows more about nutrition than the average person. The goal is to go back to our ways of using fresh ingredients and mainly organics. No soda, more water, and juice.
- Stick to a training regimen. I have done this in the past, I need to build in some rewards for sticking to the regimen, and some penalties for straying from the regimen. I am going to look to my wife, and my friends to keep me accountable, and maybe even implement and enforce the rewards and penalties.
- Publish what I do. Id love to build a following of others who would like to join me in this quest to be healthier. If your interested, let me know.
In doing this, I am going to launch two new web properties to my portfolio under the Lifestyle Partners, LLC brand. The first will be an extension of this blog, train.phillipbroberts.com. It will be a training jounral for myself. The second has been in the works for a couple of months now, however, it has new purpose and meaning now, Buy Better Health. The current Buy Better Health will go away and be replaced with a site regarding healthy food choices, healthy excersize choices, interviews with top health experts, and we have even considered an onling cooking show with yours truly as the chef. I may even consider launching a web property for the use of a group training journal, if there are enough who are interested.
I would like as many of you as possible to join me in this quest of healthiness. Engage your whole families to do so, it isn’t as hard as you think, and one of the greatest highs is the high of endorphines after a good work out, and food that is cooked healthy and natural, has a much better taste to it.
I am giving myself two weeks from today to put together the following deliverables:
- A training regimen
- My training jounal located at train.phillipbroberts.com
- The new Buy Better Health
- Rewards and Penalties
- A list of potential mentors and training helpers
- A budget for the costs associated
- A cashflow to cover costs associated
Hopefully I will see all of you at the finish line.
Fire Your Client
After months of making suggestions to a customer who was paying me for some consulting services, and expecting miracles to be made I was finally tired of taking his attitude because of his own short comings.
At times it felt as if this client only heard what he wanted to hear or read what he wanted to read. He certainly ignored suggestions that were in the best interest of the success of his project.
Over time I as he both became frustrated with this situation. in multiple conversations with me wife and business partner I came to the conclusion, there was only one thing to do, fire my client.
This particular was taking up too much of my time, and causing me stress. When looking at the bottom line he overall cost me more than I was making from him.
There was no reason to be rude about it, I simply stated to him that it was best we parted ways and I wished him the best luck in his future endeavors. I am certain this client was just as happy to part ways from me as I was from him.
At the end of the day that opened up time and resources for me to focus on clients who were successful projects, and were serious and willing to be vested into their projects.
Don’t be afraid to cut the fat when you need to, if a client isn’t helping. themselves along they are dangerous clients and can drag you down, get away from them as fast as possible in the most polite fashion. You will find yourself gaining 80 percent of your income from 20 percent of your clients. Learn to change that ratio and find yourself successful beyond your dreams.
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The easiest way to master anything..
The easiest way to master anything is to teach. Obviously you can’t teach something you don’t know, however, you can learn in order to teach.
By teaching something you are looking to gain a deeper knowledge of, you are forced to know the subject matter and solidify it into your brain by using repetition.
What is your passion? Use it!
For a long time, I had a hard time searching down my passions. I always thought computers and linux administration was my passion, and that I should keep studying it and eventually I would actually enjoy it. After going from job to job and being just as dissatisfied and let down over and over again I realized that it wasn’t my employer that was bringing me down, it was me.
Why?
Simple, I wasn’t being fulfilled by what I was doing. I had interest in other places, I found myself distracted by what I could be doing. How did I resolve this?
I made a detailed plan that I am still working from to move myself from what I was doing as a systems administrator, to a power house internet marketer with income on automation, and use that to teach others to follow their passion.
This plan is going VERY well so far. I have found a great group of mentors, teamed up with a close friend, and am teaching others how they can find and follow their passions as well. These are all key ingredients to become a powerhouse at anything, teachers and students, both at the same time. Teach what your taught, and it will become very clear to you how it actually works.
I learned that I love this challenge, I find myself now absolutely immersed in my statistics of my web sites, I find something absolutely amazing about the fact that little tweaks here and there, and people like you come to my website, read what I have to say, and in some cases, purchase products that I market through my website.
I am now working on trying to help others realize a passion, and follow that passion, as a matter of fact, my TRUE passion is teaching others to find a passion and coaching them to use that passion on their own to become a happier person overall. Which is why I refer to myself as a lifestyle coach. Am I available to help you? Certainly, its my passion to do so.
I know what your saying, whoa cowboy, you went from one passion to another in a matter of the same breath? Of course, that’s the beauty of following your passions, you can follow them all, and use them how it bests suites you. Here is what I teach others :
- Sit down and think, very quickly, if you didn’t have to worry about money, what is it you would spend your days doing? List at least (3) things
- For each one of these passions, list 3 careers that exist in that passion
- For each career you have listed, list 3 experts or authority figures in that career
Once you know who these experts are, you need to attempt contacting them, and asking them to mentor you. Now I know your saying to yourself :
Why would these people want to mentor me?
Because someone who as achieved the status of being an authority figure in their industry naturally wants to have protege’s. While making this contacts, you need to start developing goals and dreamlines (we will discuss these in further detail later).
Start today, let me know if you have questions. Go after your passions. You can do it!
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View stress as a challenge, live forever
Life is going to hand you stressful situations on a daily basis. How you handle those situations will contribute overall to your long term health. Learning to effectively deal with stressful situations can be the key too living a long life.
This ebook outlines very effective techniques for dealing with stress, anxiety, or panic attacks. I used to suffer from horrible panic attacks, most of which started shortly after the death of my mother. I had a hard time coping with situations and found myself using alcohol as a coping mechanism at time.
Through the use of techniques such as deep breathing, mediations, and a change in my general mindset, I have learned to over come stressful situations.
Take stressful situations and turn them into powerful situations.
Take this into consideration:
- Most deadlines are false, and unneeded, they are a guideline for when something SHOULD be done. Before allowing a dealing to stress you out, consider the consequence of missing the deadline.
- Almost all situations are temporary, consider the worst outcome of that situation, immediately prepare a plan to avoid that outcome, as well as a plan to recover from that outcome. You will generally realize that the worst outcome isn’t the end of the world.
- Don’t allow other people’s situations cause you stress. Empathy, and self involvement are two different things. Don’t involve yourself in other people’s stress, but remain empathetic to the situation.
Now, this is not to say that you will never face a stressful situation again in your life. When you are faced with a stressful situation, use that stress as fuel to be amazing. If you take a few minutes, and do some deep breathing, then analyze the situation, you will be able to quickly discover a plan to overcome your stress and “be the hero of the day”.
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So your fed up?
It is easy to get fed up. Especially when you know you could be doing better for yourself. Keep in mind, you are the only one who can make your dreams come true. If you wake up in the morning and don’t like what you see in the mirror, or think that improvement can be made, only you can implement those improvements. Begin forming a plan right then and there.
But the worl… They said I can’t…. I don’t know…. Im too…
These are all excuse phrases, and they are bullshit. They are excuses you are using to yourself to be lazy and avoid facing a challenge, mostly due to your fear of failure. The second you hear yourself having to justify to yourself your motives, it is time to look deep within yourself to figure out why you are making those justifications, and don’t worry, we all do it, its human and it is natural.
Learn to fail with grace
Failure is such a negative term, I have a goal this week to come up with a new word for failure. It isn’t a bad thing, and the word failure denotes a negative connotation. I prefer to think of failures as life lessons.
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The key is to make a different outcome every time. If something doesn’t quite work out the way you expect, figure out why, adjust your approach, and do it again, persistence will pay off.
Harness support, let resistance fuel you
The main reason behind this blog post today is because I had a day of feeling just beat up. Nothing seemed to work out for me the way it normally would. We all have bad days, however, today I allowed the things around me bring me down until a good friend of mine, business partner, and fellow lifestyle designer Matthew Savage said to me:
Phil trust me your worth $10k an hour. Your a really smart guy, with ambition, don’t let the corporate slave master get you down. Soon you will be shedding that pittance of what they think your worth for what you feel you truly are. Think big, you will have it, life is a fucking game, we think to little and listing to those that have nothing. Why no listen to others that have freedom, have the life we want, they are smart. That is why I liked Tims book so much I can respect and listen to that guy cause he knows what his time is worth, he lives the life I want.
After he said this to me, I realized one of my strongest assets are those who support my fundamental shift in life, fellow lifestyle designers seeking to achieve the same goals. Another great support to me is my wife Amanda Roberts whom is always behind me regardless of my mood, or my crazy wild dreams and ambitions.
However, I have those who are very close to me, who think I am INSANE. These people are still good friends, and even family, and I use their negativity as fuel.
Talk to me about it!
I want to discuss with others what you want to achieve and how you plan on achieving it. Please share your story, feel free to join my mailing list. Let’s help one another grow stronger and grow better. Let us have some conversations not just about me, but about you as well!
Just do it… (Not even the Nike slogan, I swear)
Here is the problem, the majority of us are self destructive. Something comes down the pipe that sets us back, an unexpected bill, or shortage of money, or rejection from something we really want, when it doesn’t work, we shut down and become negative. It is the easiest thing to do right? Wrong.
Start becoming creative. Focus on the goals, write them down, ask yourself today what you are doing to get to that goal, if your sulking, your not achieving any goals, your more likely thinking of reasons why you won’t accomplish what you want.
It was easy for me 5 years ago when I was homeless to think that the situation I had gotten myself into was never going to end, however, after some friends had given me some tough love, and a sift kick in the ass, I learned that the only person who can change the outcome of the path I was on was me. This sounds lame right? You’ve heard this before? I know. I had too. The point is, 6 years later, I worked my self back into a high paying job, and am now looking to move into my own self sustained income generating business again.
Am I afraid of failure? No, the biggest thing I have learned over the past 6-7 years is that failure is temporary, as can be success, however, failure has done nothing but teach me some of the most valuable lessons in life. I can self destruct today and do nothing, or I can kick ass and live life on my own terms. Every day I am one step closer to that, because every day my single biggest motivation is to use my lessons that I have learned through some of the largest failings anyone can go through to leverage myself into a life of luxury and freedom, and it is working. It isn’t costing me millions in investments, or days of sleepless work to balance it all, it is requiring me to not self destruct, to determine where I want to be, and settle for no less.
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Be a Leader. Lead from the back of the line.
One of the greatest assets you can have, is an ability to lead.
When I talk about being a leader, I am referring to a leader who possesses that ability to influence from any part of the line. Some one who has mastered the art (and leadership is nothing short of an art) of leadership learns to influence the direction of a project, or organisation from the middle and from the back, it shouldn’t matter.
I spent the majority of my career working for Fortune 50 companies. As an employee or contractor for one of these businesses, unless you are a major stock holder, there is no such thing as leading from the front of the line. Even the management and leadership have very little ability to truly lead. The ones who succeed are the ones who learn how to influence the right people to help them change the direction of the flow of money.
I am going to drastically switch directions of this blog, my goal is to show you how to be a leader, to help you become a leader, to work with you one on one with your challenges as a leader. This is an important part of lifestyle design, one of the most important parts of lifestyle design, learning to march to the beat of a different drummer, and using that to influence those around you to think the way you want them to think.
Be Decisive…
I can’t tell you how much it annoys me when people can’t be decisive. I think it probably rubs us all the wrong way.
Be the decisive one, if people don’t like your idea, force them to give you a better idea. When you challenge people, they respect you more, you can do this with out being seen as being pushy, or over dominating. For example:
John and Molly are trying to decide where to eat, Molly asks John what he wants for dinner and he says it doesn’t matter to him that it was up to her, Molly can’t make up her mind either. Both are stuck in a cyclical conversation of indecisiveness until they both decide not to go out to eat and starve to death.
This particular conversation is a minimal example of how indecisiveness can be dangerous, this is how that conversation should have gone. Molly will be the decisive alpha in the conversation.
John and Molly are trying to decide where to eat. Molly asks John what he feels like for dinner, and he replies that it does not matter to him (this is a lie). Molly suggests that she would like to go to a japanese steak house and get sushi.
Again, a simplistic example. However, being indecisive in business situations can be detrimental to a business. In a lot of cases executives and business owners get stuck in “over analyzing” a situation. Time to market can be extremely important. When I launch a product, I launch that product with all of the advertising options I can, however, I test each advertising option against the other (split testing, and A/B testing). After as little as 24 hours I can begin to see what is working and what isn’t working, normally I begin to take out what isn’t working in as little as 48 hours (sometimes a little sooner). As I take things out (ad placements, keywords, ad wording) I add new stuff in to test.
The key is I was decisive about launching my product, I did allow a bunch of analytics tell me how I should launch my product. I allowed live analytics coming in to show me in real time what does and does not work. It will change from product to product, and from medium to medium.
When I was working for a Top 50 IT firm, I saw management indecisiveness cost them lots of money. Don’t let this happen to you, be the decisive one, people will respect you more, and you will make more money by doing so, you can’t learn, if you don’t make mistakes.
To quote Carrie Wilkerson from The Barefoot Executive - Are you making excuses or being motivated by REASONS?
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My next big adventure…
In January I am planning on taking my family to Vail in Colorado for the entire month. During this month I will be teaching my boys to skii, and just spending quality time with my family. My work during this time will be limited to 4 hours a week. How can I achieve this?
I realized a long time ago that finding a process for everything was the easiest way to keep myself from every having to do it. For every new project I put together, once I have I realized how that project produces an income stream for me, I break that project into pieces. Each piece has a dependency on another part of the process in order to create the overall system that produces that particular income stream for me. Once a piece of the process is completed, it is passed on to the next outsourced resource to complete their piece, this allows me to break my business down into multiple small pieces handled by different people. By doing this, I keep control of my intellectual property, and also minimize mistakes, because each outsourced resource is specially trained in order to complete one small piece of the overall puzzle that makes up my income.
There is a process to everything you do, soon we will discuss how to break each piece down into systems, and how to identify, train and utilize outsourced resources to complete your tasks, making you money, while YOU ski in Vail for a month.
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