“Whoa is me.”
“My life is so hard.”
“I’m having a pity party and you’re all invited.”
“I can’t follow my dreams because I don’t have any money.”
“I’m stuck on this life path and I can’t change it.”
“This is the only job I will ever be able to get with my past experience.”
Does this sound like you? Even if you aren’t saying these things, you may very well have thought them before. I know I have.
“The world isn’t interested in the storms you encountered but whether or not you brought in the ship.”
- Raul Armesto
When you are on your deathbed are you going to focus on how much you hated your day job for forty years, never got to follow your passions, or regret putting off that trip to Fiji? Or are you going to think back and smile at how hard you worked to rise above the challenges life handed you and tell stories to your grandchildren about how much fun you had fighting for your dreams to come true? I know which future I want.
“How much do you have to lose? Take a look at the guy 10 years ahead of you. Do you want to be that guy?”
– Dan Andrews
Simple Exercise
Imagine yourself in ten years. What are you doing? Are you happy? Are you still at the same job? Do you get excited about what your future will bring? If you aren’t excited, you need to change something RIGHT NOW.
Don’t spend Memorial Day weekend vegging out on the couch, watching pointless things on television, and wasting another weekend away. Here are 22 ways to quit making excuses, get off your butt, and immediately go change your future for the better.
- Start a habit of rising earlier in the morning.
- Challenge how you view starting a business by reading The Four Hour Work Week.
- Get motivated to crush it by watching Gary Vaynerchuk speak.
- Take the first steps towards building an empire.
- Read The Millionaire Fastlane, get off the sidewalk, out of the slow lane, and start creating a fastlane business.
- Get your finances in check by signing up for Mint.com.
- Shock yourself into making financial changes by reading Your Money or Your Life.
- Make sure you are a recession proof graduate and can find a job.
- Become determined to break out of the 9 to 5.
- Watch Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture and start to follow your childhood dreams.
- Clean out your closets, tackle your clutter, and sell your crap.
- Go to the library and check out one of the 100 Books Every Man Must Read.
- Create multiple income streams and earn more money.
- Start a blog on WordPress for free.
- Take a risk and organize an international adventure.
- Slow down your spending by unautomating your finances.
- Make the decision to be remarkable.
- Learn a new language in three months.
- Lay out plans to Escape from Cubicle Nation.
- Start making money doing what you love by becoming a Career Renegade.
- Write down plans to negotiate your salary at work.
- Minimize your possessions as start living a minimalist life.
When you’re feeling down and out:
- Close your eyes.
- Blast some music.
- Collect your thoughts.
- Go do something.
You’ll feel better.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Caleb!
I don’t even remember how I stumbled onto your blog, but here I am!
Awesome post and a great todo list for the upcoming 3 day weekend. Since I’m going to be moving soon, i’m going to take this opportunity to sell some of my crap. Less clutter, more money - sounds like a win to me.
Welcome Paul! Less clutter is always a freeing feeling. It feels great to take a bag or two to Goodwill.
Good links here.
I think understanding you can be fired at any time is something many people I know that work 9-5′s don’t understand and should. If you have 1 source of income you are a slave to whoever provides that 1 source of income. You know this but this is something we should try to engrain in others.
Don’t complain that you have to work for someone else on their schedule when you are doing nothing to multiply your streams of income and break the chains of slavery.
David Damron
Life Excursion
Great point David. I didn’t realize this myself until there were major layoffs at my job within the first year of me being there out of college. Even after that happened it still took my a long time to realize that I need to watch out for myself.
Love these ideas. Getting up an hour earlier is huge! My friend wrote a great guest post about that called the Power of an Hour (http://www.habitformingsuccess.com/quick-tips/day-13-the-power-of-an-hour/) and it ended up getting a tons of hits on my blog. I also love the free reources you suggested like Mint.com (used by my husband and I to track our finances), checking out books from the library (the cliche “knowledge is power” is the truth!) and starting a free blog. Blogging is a great way to develop discipline and get some accountability toward goals. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks Angela, when I first started blogging I used the extra hour in the morning to really get things done. I highly recommend it!
Hahaha - How funny that I’d stumble upon your website and this post after having this exact same conversation with myself this morning…
The thing I’d to your list is reading Seth Godin’s “Poke the Box” (free via Kindle). I was feeling grouchy this morning about having too much business stuff to do, plus a day job to go to, but reading those stories always helps put me in a better mood.
It’s like - “Sarah, do you really think that the people who achieved these great things didn’t have to worry about things like grocery shopping, laundry or too much time at a day job?!” Every one has to deal with the same challenges, but people still manage to do extraordinary things - so quit your whining and get to work!
Welcome Sarah! I haven’t read Poke the Box yet, but The Dip by Seth Godin really helps me get through those tough times.
Love this -> “Every one has to deal with the same challenges, but people still manage to do extraordinary things – so quit your whining and get to work!”