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…

There’s still over a month left, but this year has been pretty wild so far.  I’ve gone through the grueling ordeal of completing a graduate thesis.  I got my masters degree.  I got LEED certified.  I left Arizona.  I’ve visited San Francisco, Portland, and Vancouver.  I got an apartment in the city with my awesome girlfriend.  There really is a lot to be thankful for.

The biggest thing though has been the shift in trying to establish a passive stream of income.  I’m grateful that I have the (limited) resources that have allowed me to pursue this full-time.  I am grateful that my girlfriend believes in me and doesn’t think I’m wasting my time on a pipe dream, which my mom and best friend seem to think.  I am grateful for the handful of like-minded people I’ve been introduced to through this blog.  And I don’t usually like to give personal plugs, but I’m really grateful for Mark Ling and everyone over at Affilorama.  The success stories I’ve heard over there and they useful affiliate marketing tips I’ve learned have really kept me going.

I feel so thankful for everything that’s happened over the past few months.  I know I’m just getting started, but I feel like this journey is starting to get exciting.  I’m really starting to believe.  Once you can believe, so many great things are possible.

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.

Then there are things that just make me sad.  Nearly 400 people search for “what to look for in a man” each month on Google.  This surprises and depresses me.

To think that some people out there are completely unable to determine what they personally like in a man really lowers my opinion of humanity.  Perhaps these people are just stumbling through life looking for some magical “instruction booklet.”  It lays out all the steps you need to follow to have a happy life.

Step one:  Go to school

Step two:  Get a job

Step three:  Get married

Step four:  Have 2.5 kids

Step Five:  Work until you’re 60

Step Six:  Die

I hate to say it, but there is no template for life.  There is no perfect formula that you should follow to guarantee happiness.  It makes me sad to see so many people just shuffling through life, sleep walking as they just pour all their vitality and passion down a sewer drain.  They convince themselves that a new flat screen will fill the gaping void, or that a BMW is the answer.

Having lived in Arizona for awhile, I saw a lot of people there that were chasing after some template.  They were so disconnected from what they really wanted in life, that they just looked to the social meme of a suburban house, a swimming pool, and nice car.  Now there’s nothing wrong with perusing those things as long as that is your true desire.  Just don’t try to fool yourself that a swimming pool is going to make your life perfect when you really want to become a musician, or that staring at a flat screen is going to bring you bliss when you really want to hike up to Machu Picchu.

I’ll admit, following the template lifestyle feels safe.  I mean, everyone else is doing it so it can’t be all that risky, right?  But truthfully, isn’t there more to life than mere safety?  I should hope so.  Safety doesn’t represent growth or adventure.  Safety only represents defending the status quo.  And, to me, that is a pretty lame thing to devote your life too.

So, I’m going to ask you to take a moment and look around yourself.  What are you surrounded by?  Do you live in a city?  In the suburbs?  In the country?  In a small town?  Do you have a job?  What kind of job?  Who is in your life right now?

I want you to ruthlessly start asking yourself whether or not you chose those things?  Do you intentionally choose them or were they chosen for you by some social template?  Be ruthless here.  Don’t be afraid to examine even the most sacred things by which you may define yourself.

This sort of self-reflection can be challenging and sometimes frightening, but it will teach you a lot about yourself and you’ll learn what you truly value in life if you start doing it regularly.

“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.

Waiting for a website to rank is pretty maddening.  It’s totally outside of my control and I’m a very impatient person.  So, I’m just distracting myself by working on the third site.

This one is actually a lot easier because it is something I can relate to personally.  I think that helps a lot with the niche that you’re working in.

Also, Ezine Articles FINALLY upgraded my status to basic plus (one business day, my ass).  By now I have about 10 articles to swamp them with.  It shouldn’t take much time at all to get my 25 submissions in and get upgraded again to platinum.  Supposedly, Ezine Articles doesn’t completely suck as much if you have platinum status.

I can hardly wait </sarcasm>.

The diet is going well.  I like eating nuts and meat and lentils, so this is a pretty tasty diet for me.  I’ve got my first binge day coming up and I’m looking forward to it.

I guess there’s something to be said about wanting what you can’t have.  I haven’t wanted to eat ice cream, pizza, or beer in quite awhile.  But ever since I decided to do this diet and limit what I’m eating, I’ve been dreaming about all the sugary/carb-filled goodness that is Saturday!

I didn’t have to pay for it.  The traffic came totally free through SEO.

In these early days, when I log into Clickbank and see those rare little spikes indicating a sale, I really can’t believe my eyes.  It seems unreal.  I stare at it for a few moments not really trusting my eyes.

Then slowly, a smile glides across my face as I realize that I did it!  I f—ing sold something!

Okay, so I only made $56.95.  Not really that much.  Hell, I could make that much in just a few hours if I had a desk job.

But this is somehow different.  It’s exciting.  Why?  Because I didn’t lift a finger at all yesterday to promote this product.  It’s a taste of what passive income is like.  And I’m hooked.  I want more of this!

Maybe I’m crazy (which I probably am), but I say a little prayer for each of my customers.  I promote e-books and digital products that help people with panic and anxiety attacks.  I thank them for their purchase and I sincerely wish that they can find peace and that what they purchased helps them.  Maybe I’m just being naive, but I really want to help people.

Hell, now I have some motivation to keep me going strong.

Look out internet, here I come!

One thing I do have is time, which I’m pouring into affiliate marketing.  I’m no expert by any means.  Hell, I just started in August.  But I’ve read far too many success stories to not believe it’s a real way to make money.  Hell, I’ve already made a little from it.  Not much brag about, but enough to make me believe.  I have one site up and I’m doing SEO on that while finishing up my second site.

It’s a lot of work, and I can understand why a lot of people don’t keep with it.

But, hell.  What else is there for me?  I have a masters degree in a field that’s getting raked over the coals by the economy so I can’t get a job in that industry.  No one else will even look at me because I’m “over educated.”  So all that’s left is for me to make money on my own online.

I honestly feel a little betrayed by my industry.  I went to school for six years, I have two degrees in my field.  I worked for three years in offices, and when I left to go back to grad school everyone was slapping me on the back and telling me that they would keep a cubicle open for me when I graduate.

Now it’s nothing but chirping crickets.

Screw all this.  This isn’t a way to live a life.  In servitude to some company that will just turn a cold shoulder to you when times are hard.  People often say that their co-workers are like family.  Is this how you treat family?

I’m done with the broken model of working for someone else.  Even if I did get a job at an office, I would only take it grudgingly, and I would use every spare cent I had to fuel my own business ventures until I could quit.

I feel like the past few months have really transformed me and I know that there’s no way I can go back to the person I was before.

Yes, like anyone else starting out with making money online, I find myself filled with doubt and uncertainty.  I find it depressing and disheartening to check Google Analyics or Clickbank each morning only to see a small trickle of visitors and no commissions.

So, why do I keep going when I’m discouraged?

Simply because there’s really nothing else for me to do.  All I can do is keep typing away, writing articles, building websites, building backlinks.  I know that some day this will pay off, and all I can do till then is keep plugging away till then.

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.

Recently I graduated from ASU with a masters degree.  There are no jobs to be found these days.  That’s honestly okay with me.  Last summer I had a horrible office job.  It was mind-numbingly boring and everyday I violated my own personal values.  I decided then that I didn’t want to have a 9-5 job anymore.  Right now I’m trying to find my own way of earning income.  I’m learning how to set up affiliate websites to generate income.  I’ve made a few sales, but not enough to support myself and my girlfriend yet.  I’m learning the ropes as I go.

So that’s where I am now.  I suspect that the scope of this blog will begin to expand as time goes on, for right now though, I’m a little single-minded in finding a source of income.

Welcome, and I hope you enjoy taking this journey with me.