This past Sunday, I met up with some internet marketers here in the Seattle area.  It was really cool to actually meet people that are doing this.  It makes me feel a little less crazy to actually be around people that talk about SEO, affiliate commission rates, and other topics that seem to make everyone else’s eyes glaze over.  I even met one guy that makes a full-time living from an affiliate website.  This was pretty huge for me.  I’ve talked to people online that make lots of money doing this.  I’ve even traded a few e-mails with some.  But to actually meet someone that’s doing this in person…  There was something especially motivating about that.

Tonight, I am going to start my first Japanese language class through the UW Experimental College.  I took a year of Japanese in college when I was an undergrad, but I forgot most of it.  Going to Tokyo in 2008, really made me want to learn Japanese so I could actually be a bilingual bad ass!  Plus, I’ve decided to set up a Japanese language website (which I will refer to as website #7 from here on), and this will be a great opportunity to get content for it.  All I need to do is go to class and learn something I want to learn anyway, then go home and write about what I learned to make an affiliate site.  Pretty sweet if you ask me!

This week is kind of hard for me.  My girlfriend is doing the Tim Ferriss Diet again.  She is forbidding me from doing it this time because she’s afraid I’ll wither away to nothing.  So, to help keep her motivated, I’m choosing to suffer as well, by only checking my Clickbank account on Fridays.  I did not realize, how addicted I was to logging in and seeing if I’ve made any sales.

There are some other things going on this week too, but they are directly related to my online business (my newspaper ad, outsourcing, etc.), so I’ll save those for my Friday update.  It’s times like now that I’m really excited to be alive!

The DVD is a presentation he gave at some seminar. He details this exercise where you sit down and answer one question. You answer it in incredible, minute detail. Doing say has the power to change your life. What is this “magical” question?

It’s “What would you do on your perfect day?”

Go into insane detail on this exercise.  Write about what you think about when you wake up in the morning.  What do you have for breakfast?  Where are you eating breakfast?  What do you do with your time?  What do you wear?  How do your clothes feel against your body?  Where do you live?  Who do you spend your time with?  What do you do when you spend your time with them?  How does that make you feel?  What are you working toward?  What makes you happy?

You get the idea.

Frank spent about 4 hours writing down the answer to this question.  He advocates getting into the boring, mundane details because the boring and mundane things are what life is made of.  Make this a day that you could live over and over again for the rest of your life and be completely content with it.

Frank says that almost as if by magic, he ended up living the exact life he wrote about within the following nine months after doing it.

Pretty cool.

I actually did this exercise, oh, maybe two years ago.  I don’t remember where I heard about from back then,  I didn’t take it into as insane detail as Frank did.  Personally, everything I wrote didn’t come true, but my current reality bears an odd resemblance to what I wrote about.

At the time, I was single, living in some sprawled out suburban desert wasteland in Tempe, Arizona.  The heat was oppressive and made me feel miserable most of the time.  I was in grad school taking lots of classes that didn’t particularly interest me that much.

I wrote about living in an exciting dense neighborhood where I could walk anywhere.  I had an awesome girlfriend and we lived together in a historic apartment building.  I spent my days hanging out in coffee shops and creating artwork.  My evenings were spent with close friends sharing good times.

Today, I now living in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, which is pretty cool place.  Lots of activity and essentially the complete antithesis of anything you could find in Arizona.  I have a girlfriend that fits the description of the girl that I wrote about very closely.  I spend my time working on building websites in coffee shops.

Pretty cool!  I may not be all the way there, but I think I’m on track to getting what I wrote about two years ago.

I’m going to take some time today to answer the question again.  This time in more detail and with more description.  I’d recommend that you do this too.  When you finish doing this you should be totally jazzed and excited about what you wrote about.  You should be chomping at the bit to get out there and make it yours.  If you’re not, then you need to go back and do it again, focusing on what you really want for yourself.

It’ll be interesting to see how this goes…

Plus it seems to be trendy this year not to make New Year’s resolutions.  Being the stubborn contrarian that I am, I’m going to do it anyway.

What has 2009 brought for me?

• I finished grad school.
• I left Arizona and moved to a city that I enjoy much more than Phoenix.
• I heard someone say “I love you” to me for the first time in almost three years (not counting my mom or best friend).
• I decided to go out on a limb and use the rest of my savings to try and start a business that may just end up financing the rest of my life (!).
• I became poor.
• I left the country (even if it was just Canada, and even if it was only for four days).
• I decided to follow my dreams.

Overall, pretty good.  I must say, this isn’t the way I planned on everything playing out.  I wish I made more money, and I wish my girlfriend and I could travel more, and I wish she didn’t have to go to work at a job she doesn’t like.  But I suspect that will be a story for 2010.

For 2010, I’m making a few resolutions:

• I want to get up to making about $40-50k per year online.
• I want to begin outsourcing and removing myself from the equation so I can have free time.
• I want to be able to pay for my girlfriend to go to school full-time for Spring Quarter (around March).
• I want the two of us to go on a one-month mini-retirement to Thailand.
• I want to study Japanese.
• I want to take some art classes.
• I want to participate in NaNoWriMo in November.
• I want to develop this blog into something more.
• I want to laugh in the face of everyone who told me to get a job and that I was wasting my time (this is my petty goal for the sake of revenge and my ego).
• I want us to move to San Francisco.
• I want to buy new clothes (haven’t in two years).

Well, I guess that’s pretty much it.  When you’re setting goals, it’s important to go into insane detail about them.  I’ll spare you all my rambling daydreams and write them down privately.  But, well, I’d like to come back to this post next year and see how I did.

So hold my feet to the fire, and make sure I make an effort to make these goals a reality.

I hope you all have a great New Year’s.  And I hope we all have a great 2010!

After having a discussion with my girlfriend about why some people are “losers” I wanted to make a post here on the topic.  I imagine if you made it to my blog, you probably don’t believe in luck and that whether or not certain people end up rich or poor is just based on a roll of the cosmic dice.

So if luck isn’t part of the equation, what is?  Sure goals are important.  It’s always critical to know what you’re aiming for.  I think everyone has some goal in their life.  Even the sleep-walking “template people.”  Their goals might be to get a “bitchin” flat screen TV, or a BMW.  Other people might have the goal of losing weight or finding Mr. or Miss Right.  Personally I want to make a full-time income on the internet so I never have to sit in a cubicle again.  Goals are everywhere.

The problem with goals is that you start to fixate and fantasize about the future.  “Oh, won’t it be great when I get that promotion.” “Things will be perfect after I graduate from college.”  When you spend too much time in the future, you’re actually giving your goals the kiss of death.

Sitting on your butt and daydreaming about things isn’t going to bring them to you.  That’s my whole beef with the Law of Attraction.  Goals are great, but you must take constant daily action to move toward them.

That’s right, constant daily action.  Stop living in the future.  Live in the present.  Realize that this current moment in time is your point of power.  At this moment you hold to power to shape your life the way you want it to be.  The past is gone and the future is not yet here.  Live in the present and use this moment as your point of power.  The only time anything ever gets done is, indeed, in the present.

So the reason some people end up losers and others end up outrageously successful is because they exploit the power of the present moment.  Your entire life is no more than the total sum of every single decision you’ve made day-in and day-out for your whole life.  No matter how bad you think your life might be right now, just remind yourself that NOW is when it will begin to change, if it is ever going to change at all.

Start making a few intentional actions that will bring you closer to your goals.  Slowly, these actions that you make in the moment will begin to stack upon each other.  They’ll grow larger and larger as they gain momentum like a snowball you roll in a fresh field of snow.  And inevitably, you will eventually reach your goals.

Remember that your place in life is nothing more than the sum of every decision you’ve ever made.  If you want to change it, you need to start making different decisions.  And the only time you can decide something is now.

PS:  I am trying out a new style of graphics, which I will admit, I am blatantly borrowing (ripping off) from Plugin ID.

Well, firstly I’ve done that.  It blows.  The cube-dweller lifestyle is not for me.  I don’t like having the only highlights of my day being listening to streaming radio on a pair of ear-buds and trying to decide between Taco del Mar or Subway for lunch.  I’d like to think there’s more to life than doing that for 40 years.

I’m a huge advocate of Tim Ferriss and I want to separate my income from my time.  That is to say I don’t want to actively work for money.

Okay, so let’s assume that I can achieve this.  Then what?  Running away from something isn’t enough.  If you escape from something but have nowhere to escape to, what’s the point?

• I want to move to San Francisco.  Ever since I first visited in 2007, I instantly loved the city!  It’s like it has everything that Seattle has, only more so.  The hills are steeper, it’s denser, the weather is better, the people are more diverse, you don’t need a car, the buildings look nicer…
• I want to travel all over the world.  Exactly one year ago, I was in Tokyo.  It was amazing!  All the energy and excitement.  The thrill of trying to communicate in a different language!  Plus, I studied for a term in Italy in 2003 too.  That was really great!  The gelato, the history, the beautiful hilltowns!  I’m hooked on travel!  My girlfriend and I have already made a goal of going to Thailand next summer.
• I want to pick up new hobbies and actually have time to do them (no 9-5 job).  I want to be an artist.  I want to take up karate.  I want to learn Japanese and a few yet-to-be-determined languages.
• I want to challenge myself.  Have you ever heard of a Vision Quest or a Walkabout?  You’re alone in the wilderness for a certain period of time and you have to survive on your own.  Maybe I’m crazy, but I really want to do stuff like that.  I hear you come back a changed person, and I’m really curious and interested.
• I want to help people.  I think it would be really cool to become a life coach.  On the rare occasions when I’ve been able to help people and talk to them about the direction of their life, I just feel so passionate!  Maybe I could teach people all this internet stuff if I get good at it too!  I would love to show all my friends and family how to free themselves from the rat race!  But I feel like I have to do it myself first.
• I also want to do a few random things too.  I want to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  I want to go to Burning Man.  I want to do fun things just for the sake of doing them!

Okay, so those are my goals.  What I’m working toward.  Assuming anyone ever starts following this blog, I really hope that you hold me to these and don’t let me give up.

“I don’t like beans, can I eat cereal instead?”

“I can’t live without milk, can I put milk in the diet?”

“I know you said no bread, but can I eat bread on this diet?”

It seems that these people want the results without following the plan.  These are the kind of people that will probably never succeed at this diet or much of anything else for that matter.  They want to lose the weight, but they don’t want to give up all the foods that you need to in order to do the diet.  They’re lazy.  I don’t want to be like them.  And I don’t want you to be like them either.

When someone lays out a simple plan on how to get the results you want, follow it to the T and don’t look for lazy shortcuts.

Then there are other people that start doing the diet and post about their progress.  But then they disappear after a few days.  I imagine most of them gave up and quit.

I don’t want to be a quitter either.  Neither do you.  If you’re going to do something, do it will all your passion and will power.  See it through to the bitter end and don’t give up because you “just had to have a Big Mac.”  Or if you do slip up, just get back on the horse and try again.

But the most annoying part was all the women posting on the blog saying that they couldn’t do it because their women.  Now, I’m no master of physiology, so their complaints may have some grounds to them.  But I really get annoyed when people start making excuses about why something won’t work for them even though it seems to work for other people.

Don’t just assume that something won’t work and just make some excuse about why you’re fat (or broke, or trapped in a 9-5 job, or whatever).

Nothing is more annoying that the victim mind-set and pity parties.

Just do it anyway and find out if it will work or not.

Don’t go around looking for shortcuts… There’s no way to succeed without putting in the work necessary for success.

Don’t be a quitter… They just dabble in things until they reach the first obstacle and then they bounce off to the next fad.

Don’t make excuses for why you’re not where you want to be… All you’re doing is keeping yourself stuck and annoying people like me.

Really though, my girlfriend wants to try it out.  She thinks that she should lose a few pounds, and I’m going to join her in the diet so she doesn’t have to do it alone.

Basically what I’m eating is vegetables, meat, and legumes.  I get one day a week to blow off the diet and go wild.  This will be fun!

I’ve never been on a diet before.  I don’t really understand much of the science behind this diet or any other diet for that matter, but if nothing else it will be a fun experiment in lifestyle design.

In other news, I’m done with my second website.  I’m just waiting for Ezine Articles (EZA) to upgrade my account so that I can feed more articles to them.  I have a mounting pile of six articles raring to go.  EZA has been really slow to review things lately.  I assume it’s because their 100 articles in 100 days challenge has caused a back up with their editorial staff.

I’m on what most people would call an unconventional journey.  I want to live my life on my own terms.  I want to be able to do what I want, when I want.  I don’t want to feel trapped in a cubicle ever again.  I’d rather shoot myself in the face than “design” another Walmart or Taco Bell.  I would probably cry if I had to have another phone conversation with some large corporate retail client about whether their drivit strip mall is going to be “Sahara Sunshine” or “Beach Beige” while secretly wondering why they needed to invent two names for what is essentially the same color.

Anyway, most people I know don’t really understand my goals and aspirations.  They think I’m crazy when I start to talk about passive income, or try to tell them about The 4 Hour Work Week.  They brush it off as a “scam.”

Basically, I’ve given up on them.  I’ll tell them all about it after I’m successful.  Maybe then they’ll listen to me.

As far as they know, I’m just some unemployed guy fighting a bad economy.

I’m doing this blog for 2 reasons:

1. I want to meet other like-minded people who are either on a similar path as me, or are already living the dream.  It can be hard to believe in yourself amongst a crowd of nay-sayers.  I want to meet people who I can use as my “lifestyle design support network.”  People that I can encourage when they feel down and people that will give me the occasional swift kick in the ass when I want to give up.
2. I also want to help people who are just starting out on the journey.  Granted, I haven’t really achieved much yet, but that will change in time.  It can be hard when you’re first starting and self-doubt runs rampant in all your plans.  I want them to read about my humble beginnings and use it as encouragement, and I’d like to offer any advice I can to them as well.

So, that’s why I’m blogging here.  Enough chit-chat, I need to do some work…

My girlfriend is finally starting college after dreaming about it for several years.  Classes started yesterday, and last Friday she got a letter from the school saying that they were not offering her any financial aid.  This was a tough blow for us.  We had one weekend to scrounge up a few thousand dollars.  However, I’m pretty much broke and she’s doing her best to keep us afloat.

We just didn’t have the dough.

I felt horrible.  Here I was encouraging her to go back to school, but I couldn’t even help her out.  I’m nearly unemployable.  No one in my industry is hiring (thanks to the economy) and with my masters degree I’m far too “over educated” for any other type of job out there.  All I have is my bootstrap internet business, which is still in the process of materializing.

It was probably the worst feeling I could imagine to sit there holding her and feeling her dream just shriveling up and dying.  And worst yet, I couldn’t help but feel somehow responsible.

She told her dad and he tried to discourage her from going to school.  I told my mom, but she just said some wishy-washy do-nothing nonsense like, “Well, the universe might just be telling her that it’s not time to go to school.” (No, the universe isn’t telling her anything.  It’s the school telling her that they can’t give her money)

That pissed me off.  I really hate it when people pretend to be all spiritual and then just end up sitting on their ass while they wait for a big dump truck full of gold coins to drive up to their house.

No, if you want something, you have to take action to get it.

I wasn’t going to sit on my ass.  I was seeing this as a challenge that we could overcome if we tried hard enough.  I don’t have the quote in front of my right now, but I believe Napoleon Hill once wrote something to the effect of, “Within every adversity is the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

It was disheartening to hear all these people trying to tell her to put her dream on hold.  Especially since she’s already been doing that for a few years now.  And after finally working up the courage to go back to school, discouraging comments are the last thing she needs.

We spent the weekend weighing options.  Hell, I even looked into participating in focus groups and paid psychological experiments at the university.  In the end, she dropped one of her classes and signed up for a monthly tuition payment plan.  I tacked on half of the price to my mounting credit card debt.

And yesterday, she went to school for the first time in years.

We didn’t listen to all the nay-sayers.  We didn’t sit on our asses praying that some magical scholarship would just fall out of the sky.  We took action and we got results.  What’s most important to me, though is that she has now grown.  She jumped over the hurdle of starting college, and I don’t know how yet, but I know that that will change her life.

Don’t let people bring you down.  Don’t let them discourage you.  Don’t listen to all the smoke they blow up your ass.  Be solid and strong in your dreams, and never give up on them.  If you can have faith in even the darkest night, you will live to see the sun rise.