Canucks, Cuba, Carla and KARMA!!!

I have had an outstanding week after giving out free hugs last Wednesday.

EVERYTHING seems to be working out.

Wednesday: I have an older gentleman come up to me at Deuce Bungallo and say "I really like your music!". We chatted for a half an hour and at the end I found out thats its Francesco Aquilini who is reportedly worth over $2 Billion and owns the Canucks.
Even though nothing has directly come of this yet, it is a great connection for the future. I'm greatful that people like this are being put along my path!

Saturday: I am hanging out playing tunes at Deuce and in walks this friendly guy. He's short, he's black and he walks right up to me and gives me a hand shake. He introduces himself as Cuba and I'm thinking....this guys looks familiar. It turns out it is the superstar actor Cuba Gooding Jr from Gerry McGuire. He ends up buying me a drink and grabbing the camera off of the desk and taking a picture with me. Its cool to hang out with someone that is living the dream!

Later on in the night my buddy Darcy brings in two very nice girls to hang out at Deuce. Both girls are cute but one in particular caught my eye. I hung out with them after my shift @ Deuce was done and then we headed down to Ginger. The one I was interested in, C, and I got seperate from the group walking to Ginger. We had a great conversation and we ended up meeting everyone at Ginger. It was a big Dj so the lineup was huge. My Dj status couldn't get us past it because there were new bouncers. This gave "C" and I a chance to talk more (for an hour) and we really hit it off. This girl is beautiful, funny, well traveled, educated and has an extremely high status job. Her sister seemed like an awesome person too which is a great sign of a good family. The more we hung out the more we got along.

I am sharing this because it feels good to know that I am now so comfortable and confident with myself that I can the girls I've always wanted to. In the past I've dated girls that were beautiful but were extremely insecure and crazy. Now I am consistently hitting it off with girls of high quality. It feels great to hang out at Deuce, look around at all of the STUNNING girls that I work with and say "not my type" because they are party girls (into a lot of drugs) or they don't give off an outstanding energy.

Who knows what will happen with this girl but I am not in a rush to get involved with anyone. Taking a step back from dating has allowed me to figure out what I really want has been one of the best things I have ever done.

Lets keep the good times rolling guys. Lets keep spreading the love through events like FREE HUGS to spread joy and also for outstanding Karma!

MASSIVE ACTION!!!

Came across a recent article off of the Dumb Little Man blog, which focuses heavily on self-improvement. I found the post inspiring so I’m sharing it here with you guys. You can find the original article here: http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/11/how-to-take-massive-action-to-meet-your.html

I’ve been planning to write an ebook for over a year. While that project is still in the planning phase, I managed to write a full ebook last week that went from the planning stage to a finished product in only 3 days. Taking massive action allowed me to step away from the timeless planning stage and finally get things done.

“The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” ~Anthony Robbins

It all began on Tuesday when I was contacted by Jordan Harbinger, from Maxim Radio’s show on SIRIUS Satellite Radio. We had previously discussed doing an interview towards the end of November but when a a time slot opened up, we moved things up.

It was very important for me to have a downloadable information product (ebook) prepared in time for the show because I knew that offering it for free would greatly increase my blog’s subscriber numbers. This left me with the end of Tuesday, all day Wednesday, all day Thursday, and half of Friday to write the book and prepare for this interview. If that wasn’t enough, I still had to work take care of my internship!

That left only the evening and late night for getting things done. Once you add the fact that I had zero experience in putting together an ebook and less than stellar graphic design skills, you’d have to agree that I was in trouble.

I had three days, and I mapped out 2 major tasks that needed to be completed.
I had to create enough content for an ebook, and it had to be quality.
I had to find a designer that would be willing to work overnight, and at a tiny budget.
Since the topic of the radio show is dating and relationships, I decided to write my ebook on dating. The title ‘How to Get a Girlfriend’ automatically came to mind. I remembered that I had written a series of guest posts on this topic. I quickly contacted the site owner, who is a friend of mine, and asked him for permission to reprint the work with attribution to his website within. He agreed.

On my bus ride into NYC Wednesday morning, I began to compile articles that I had previously written on relationships. Luckily with 330+ articles on my site, with a decent amount of them being on dating and relationships, I did not have any trouble picking out relevant content.

On the bus ride back I continued this work, and then again when I got home. At this point I started sending out bulk e-mails to my online friends asking them to recommend an ebook designer that could work pronto and cheapo.

The replies started pouring in and I got at least 10 responses. I then took those e-mails and began to send a generic message asking for their assistance. I ended up speaking on AIM with my website designer, Nate Whitehill, and he personally introduced me to the man that would become my knight in shining armor, Joshua Denney.

I ended up working late into the night Wednesday, editing and revising many of the articles that I had previously written. I finished and worked closely with Josh in order to ponder the creative approach he would endeavor upon in the creation of this ebook.

After staying up a good portion of the night, I took a nap and then woke up to go to work. The day passed slowly as I constantly checked my iPhone for e-mails from Joshua to work on the book. Thursday night we ended up staying up all night, but we (mostly him) finished the ebook by deadline.

With one hour of sleep, I woke up early to finish doing the necessary blog posts and newsletter preparation to have everything go smoothly.

I continued to work while traveling back into NYC for the interview. I took the train in, and worked out different topics that we could possibly speak about during the show. I’m not going to lie, I think I sounded kind of bad, mostly because this was my first radio appearance and I didn’t know how to control my pitch in the microphone.

You can listen to the personal development podcast if you want to laugh at me, but I’d still say that the whole endeavor was absolutely successful. Over a year of planning brought me no result. Three days of action brought me amazing results.

Sure, I used content that I already had to put this ebook together and I couldn’t have written such a high-quality book from scratch in the same amount of time. That doesn’t matter, because I did what I had to do and took massive action.

The moral of the story is that when the pressure is on, the work gets done! The key is to this success, as so eloquently stated by Anthony Robbins, is to determine what action needs to be taken, and then to put 100% into taking this action.

Free Hugs Follow Up

It was cool that we were able to snap them out of the stressed / tired mindset of a busy day at work before they went home to their families!

Its understandable that a lot of people gave bad reactions. Society via the media conditions us (or tries to in the case of outstanding beacons of life like us!) to believe that making money and things of that nature will bring happiness. The result is that there are a lot of people out there working their asses off to make money….which ends up not making them happy. So they go day to day…work their lives away…all with the idea that one day they will be happy. They become bitter, jaded and seeing happy, loving people like us only reminds them of how miserable they are.

This coupled with the fact that most of them sit in their cubicle, type on a box, talk into a box (phone), listen to their box while walking down the street (ipod), get into their box and drive home to their tiny box apartment. There is no connection here. There is no love. No interaction. No wonder they don’t know how to react to us! We were the only real genuine interaction they had all day.

I too had a few instances where I wanted to snap on people. Here we were investing our time in other people and to do great things in the world and these guys in suits were telling us to fuck off and that we are gay. I think its very powerful what you said Patrick: “those who hurt are hurting.”

I’m realizing more and more that true fulfillment is in giving. It is in connecting. It is in living abundantly in all areas: not just money but money, relationships, emotions, giving, health etc.

Since this first one a lot of my friends have been asking me about it. 90 percent of them are blown away and want to do it with us next time. Some people I really look up to want to be involved next time.

I can’t wait to do this again next week! Should we set a regular day / time so we don’t start making excuses?

Also, I think commercial / broadway sound great. One thing I liked about our last location was that it was prime time business area. In my opinion,these are the people that are in the zone the MOST and need to be snapped out of it the most! Hugging hippies sounds great and I’m down but for some reason I am in love with the idea of catching serious business people on the street corner, giving them some love, and letting them take these great vibes home to their families.

Binge Eating & Getting shit done!

I spent some time doing some Tony exercises (decision making, dickens process etc) and I have now got my eating habits back on track. It feels great to have the power to make decisions and changes like this!

There are still two things that I would like to change:

1) Binge eating late at night. I am still doing this even after having a great, fulfilling day. I come home from being out or I am relaxing at home and I get a snack. It might not be that bad for me but then I go from that to some chips and salsa, then to crackers, then to a bagel (worst thing to have at night), and then to ice cream. I don't even want to eat / taste the food. I noticed that I just want to feel full..... I think this stems from 2 things:

a) Its partly just a habit. I have always had the habit of late night snacking. I think I'm going to set a rule that I can't eat anything after 8:30pm.

b) I think the reason why I need to feel full is because I am not getting shit done that I need to during the day. I spend a lot of time doing things for other people. I waste a lot of time as well. This causes me to get stressed and frustrated with myself. To feel good my body looks for instant gratification: eating food to feel full, masturbation, TV etc. I am going to limit the amount of instant gratification activities that I will allow myself to do. After all, true joy isn't in things that give you instant gratification, its in large accomplishments!

2) To elaborate on this I notice that I am trying to tell myself I am getting stuff done when I actually am not. I frequently visit business related websites, check "facebook for school / business purposes", spend time writing long self-improvement posts like this and talk on the phone with people. All of these things make me feel like I am getting important stuff done (like learning) but the reality is that all of this is to just make me FEEL like I am getting stuff done.

Getting important, life changing, stuff done involves setting priorities, leaving the phone and the internet off until I get these priorities done. This also includes letting myself give in to instant gratification.

When I get up in the morning I MUST be getting large internet business and school related tasks done. I shouldn't tackle anything else until I get these done. I shouldn't book myself in for anything else. Afterwards I should be doing other less important but more urgent matters that need to get taken care of (important phone calls, emails, scheduling etc). After this I must be doing something physical to give my mind a break. Then I must get my third priority of the day done. Lastly I will do something that I love: work on music, socialize with friends, play hockey, scheme my dream life.

A big part of this is having my priorities set before I go to sleep the previous night. I think another HUGE part of this is having cues to keep me motivated. Visual cues. Note cues. This will help tie my emotions and motivation to these important daily tasks. This is a MUST for me because it seems as though I forget extremely quickly the reason why I MUST be prioritizing and getting shit done.

Free Hugs!!!!

Patrick, Chris, Jerin and I went out Wednesday evening just after work to give out free hugs downtown on the busiest intersection in Vancouver: Burrard & Georgia. It was such a rewarding experience! We made so many people smile!

We had people run across traffic to give us hugs! We hugged bus drivers that stopped to see what we were doing. We hugged elderly people in wheelchairs. We hugged power business people. We hugged people that were super stressed and needed a hug!

We hugged for almost 2.5 hours and we wanted to keep going! It was so much fun and so interesting to see people's reactions.

The thing that I found fascinating was that if we just stood there with our sign, we didn't get many hugs. But as soon as we started singling people out, pointing at them and saying things like "You want a hug...I see you smiling! Bring it in....give me a hug!" they would crack a big smile and give you a hug! You really have to call on people to get them out of the mindset they are in.

It was cool that we were able to snap them out of the stressed / tired mindset of a busy day at work before they went home to their families!

I'm slipping!

Hey guys,

Its been 22 days since UPW and I am stoked that I have kept such a high for this amount of time. We took the 10 day challenge and we more than doubled it.

That being said, as most of you know I am currently living with my parents. Late last week they decided to corner me and UNLOAD on me. I won’t get into the details but they basically were putting down all of the new habits and beliefs I had built at UPW and also a lot of my goals and desires.

Since then I have been slipping. I have been doing my hour of power every day. This starts off my day on a super high. I get in my greens for breakfast, oils, water and I’m stoked. But then when it comes to getting work done towards my goals I don’t seem to be stoked about it like I used to be a few days earlier.

I know that only I can change it but I believe that a big part of me slipping the last few days is due to my parents imposing negitive bullshit onto me. The old adage is that sticks and stones will break my bones but words can never hurt me…. I’m sure that we can all agree that this isn’t 100% true with parents.
They seem to have emotional power over me that can be held back at first but whatever they criticize me on always seems to come back to haunt me soon after.

I have made the decision to move back into my apartment by the end of December. As Tony says, “Love your family but choose who you spend your time with”.

More importantly though, I think that getting in person support would have helped kept me on track with this. The same goes for all of us.

We have been conditioned over the last 20 years to think the way society wants us to think. We are surrounded by people every day that think this way and force their opinions and beliefs on us consciously and subconsciously. These two types of conditioning are effective. Its natural that we will slip a little…

The thing that would help us stay on track a lot more would be to get our IN PERSON peer group started on weekly or bi-montly meetings.

What days / nights are your free later this week? When are you free most weeks?

Jerin, Patrick, Stefan, Cheyenne and I have all voiced a need for this. Lets make it happen!

Today I made a difference!

Hey guys,

I hope you are doing well.

Today I decided to head down to the Rememberance Day Ceremony here in North Vancouver. I have always been intrigued by war and have great respect for those who fought and those who never made it back.

The ceremony was beautiful despite the pooring rain. It was great to see Veterans from all sorts of wars honored. I have always wanted to sit down with a Veteran and ask him what was was like and hear some of his stories but I have always been too shy to do so.

After the ceremony I hung around and looked at all of the names of soliders from North Van that have been killed. I looked to my right and saw some veterans in uniform with shiny medals talking to each other and to other people that just wanted to say thanks.

I saw one very old gentleman sitting down in his wheelchair. His chest was covered with medals and he was looking around but nobody seemed to want to talk to him. I really wanted to talk to a veteran of a big war. I just wanted to meet someone that has been through such an intense experience and still make it out the other side.

I walked up to the lonely looking veteran and said “wow…you have a lot of medals. Where are they from?” His face lit up and he started to go through the medals.

“This one is for landing in Normandy on D-Day” he said. I was shocked. This frail looking shy man had been one of the first men off of the boats into the biggest military operation ever launched in history. He had to run up the beach amidst an inferno of machine guy, mortar and tank fire while hearing and watching his friends dye beside him.

“This Medal is the victoria cross…awarded for outstanding bravery”. WOW. There are only a handful of men who got this medal while living. The reason being that it was only awarded when men did something so brave and so selfless that it usually gets them killed.

We talked for a good half an hour. I couldn’t help looking at his soft big blue eyes and thinking “I can’t believe those eyes saw war”.

After our half hour his son came and had to take him away because everyone was getting damp and cold. My new friend and I parted ways. I said “Thank you for serving for us and more importantly, thank you for your stories. I will never forget them and nor will I ever forget you.”

He smiled like crazy and then started crying happy tears. His son wheeled him away and as I walked away I started crying. This man I just met has been through so much. He is a hero more so than anyone I have ever met. He is braver than I will ever be. He sacrificed the prime years (19 – 24) of his life. Here I am at 24 chasing girls, trying to finish school and making money playing music….and when he was 24 he had already lost all of his friends, had seen so much and must have gone through so many strong emotions that we can’t even comprehend.

Being able to talk with a real living super hero made my day and the best part was that I made his week just by saying hello and listening to his stories.

While reflecting upon this morning I was reminded of what Tony said: “Life is not about how much money you have or the things you get. Life is about Love and sharing love”.

It feels sooooo good to spread the love!!!!

October Gap Map - Nov 1

Hey guys,

I made a commitment to doing a gap map monthly to track my progress and to post it on here. When I copy it over from word the formatting always seems to get messed up so if you can decifer the text below, let me know your thoughts!

I have made so many steps in the right direction since UPW. I'm excited to share!


Gap Map : The month of October

1) Health: 10 (where I want to be) – 7.5 (Where I am now)
Where I am now:
- 7.5 An improvement from last month. I don’t think I was being honest with myself last month. I was leading a pretty unhealthy life: junk food, improper eating combinations, overeating, drinking a lot. I rated myself a 7 and it should have been a 4 etc.
- My eating habits have changed in a large way. I am now eating 75% + of my food as foods that have their natural waters. Drinking a lot of water with lemon. A lot of greens and other vegetables. No junk food. Not too much protein.
- Taking udos oil, calcium, vitamin C and multivitamins daily.
- No more red meat, little to no chicken (I have had it once since UPW), NO dairy.
- Not drinking which is HUGE because of Halloween and the fact that I am a club DJ :p
- Using my body every morning during my hour of power and making an effort to move it whenever I can throughout the day.
- Lymphosizing by jumping every morning!
- I have slimmed down a ton! :D
- I would like to be a little more toned.
- Even though I am moving every day I am not working out regularly or playing enough sports.
- There are still times when I will have food binges where I will eat just to feel full. This happens usually late at night. The great news is that its not unhealthy food like it used to be (ice cream, chips, nachos with tons of greasy cheese etc). Now its bread, crackers, nacho chips (organic unsalted) & salsa which is better. I would still like to stop having this urge to feel full. As Tony said….food isn’t Love.
- I eat junk food if its in front of me. I did sooo well this Halloween. But the bag of candy just sat in my house and late one night I eventually found my way into it. I want to learn to catch myself going into this autopilot instant gratification ‘need to feel full’ mode…

Where I want to be:
-Feeling super energetic
- Cut body but still with muscle mass
- I look amazing in the mirror and this makes me feel great!
- Never feel heavy or drowsy
- Strategically eating food that may not be great for me: Out to dinner with friends and not at night by myself…
- Toned from working out regularly.

Checklist to close the gap:
- Set regular workout schedule
- Use 10 deep heart breaths and lemon water before eating
- No eating after 9pm (exception: celery, carrots etc)
- Continue hour of power every morning!
- Continue to not drink.

2) Emotions and meaning: 10 - 9
Where I am now:
- UPW helped me HUGE here. This past year I had a really emotional breakup and that was the first time I had cried with anyone. That was a big step for me. Then the UPW event made me feel stuff I have never felt before. Such POWERFUL emotions. It really showed me how strong they are.
- Tony taught me that the facts of things are negative, or sad…..thats just the meaning we put on them. This meaning makes us feel emotions. And as I said above emotions are strong.
- Since UPW I have been focusing on monitoring the meaning that I put on things that happen. For example, my car broke down and then I got my parent’s car towed all within the span of a few hours. The meaning I used to place on events like this was frustration, anger and stress. Instead I laughed about it and turned it into a fun story that I would tell people later to make them laugh. The result was that I had a phenomenal evening and people around me were DRAWN to me because I was in such a great state.
- I have been watching my emotions as well to see what causes them. When I feel emotions that are not beneficial I focus on heart breathing and then celebrate and they are gone!
- I feel as though I am now free to make proactive decisions as opposed to re-active decisions in life especially when facing challenges.
Where I want to be:
- I want to react less emotionally to my parents. When challenges in life come up I laugh at them and then step up! When it comes to my mom and dad though, they know just how to set me off emotionally. I haven’t gotten really angry, deflated, or anything negative since the UPW seminar with them but I have noticed that I do get little blips of frustration and anger with them. It is true that parents will always have a way of pressing your buttons but again, I have to continue exercising the tools that I have to manage these feelings.
- I am really excited to continue re-affirming this in my mind.
Closing the gap:
- Continue to manage emotions while dealing with parents. Put meaning on something good like Love instead of frustration.

3) Relationships: 10 – 8.5
Where I am now:
- My relationships with my friends are better than ever: Patrick, Cheyenne, Jerin, Brent etc.
- I am spending more time with friends that have the same aspirations I do and that have qualities / things that I want.
- I have cut out the friends that were ‘time wasters’ or ‘state drainers’.
- Relations with my family are at a high. Parents and I are getting along like never before and my brother and I are tighter than ever. You try moving back home and see how it is living with your parents. Its challenging at times but I am stoked!
- My options for women are better than ever despite me not dating. I now have beautiful girls as friends and they want more!
- I have never connected with most people like I have been recently. I can sense a person’s moods and how they are feeling. I am having great fun conversations with lots of different people.
- I find it very hard to connect with some people that don’t have good states / vibes / beliefs / language. I noticed that I instantly shy away from people that have these issues.
Where I want to be:
- I find myself wanting a girlfriend. I want the passion and intimacy that comes with having someone special in my life. Sleeping around just doesn’t have the same appeal right now. I think that down the road this is what I will be looking for. That being said, I have never been happier than now and a big reason why is because I am making time to focus on myself.
- Keep improving the relationship with the friends that I value. Make time to connect without distractions.
- Keep improving the relationship with my family.
- I have noticed that the girls I am hanging out with are STUNNING and a lot of fun but most of them are super party girls. They party 3-5 nights a week, always getting drunk and doing a lot of drugs. Seeing them all after Halloween night when they did 5 caps of E and cocaine and drinking was a horrid sight. These girls will stay as “auxiliary friends” but I will not settle for that for a girlfriend or for close friends. I would like to start surrounding myself with more productive / upbeat / women of beauty.
- Every once in a while I get caught up in trying to surround myself with top notch looking women so other people will see me. This used to be an all the time thing and it has been pretty much eliminated since the spring BUT I want to fully eliminate it. I want to date / be in a relationship with someone that I really connect with and someone that makes me feel great for being me…..not because she looks good on my arm and that’s it.
Closing the gap:
-set out designated time for family bonding.
-set out time for connecting with friends
-continue making an effort to connect with people (eye contact, watch how they move, pick up their vibe) instead of being in my head
-continue stepping up and celebrating because this draws awesome people to me.

4) Time: 10 – 5.5
Where I am:
- I don’t feel like I am using focused time towards most of the things I want to get done. I have lots of time but am not getting much done on school, job finding, business learning fronts.
-Am making time to be social. Too much time?
-Am not making time for sports.
-Am not getting my 3 or 4 most important tasks of the day done on a regular basis. I might start them and dabble on them but am not sitting down and spending x hours on each task until they are done.
- Am waking up earlier (7:30 – 9) but should be getting up earlier so I can get more done. I also noticed that the most productive hours I have are in the morning.
-Am not allotting recovery periods.
- I see a guy like Cheyenne working on his stuff until 2 am and then getting up at 6. I am not doing this. I wake up at 9. Do my hour of power until 10. Hop in the shower, eat, oils….now its 10:30. Then I check email / facebook. 11. Set out on my first task and that’s when calls start coming in so I get distracted. 12 lunch time 12:45 back to work – get shit done until 2 but didn’t take a break so the last hour was un-productive and drains me. You get the idea.
Where I want to be:
-I want to be focused and getting shit done! I want to make progress.
-Focused time blocks
-Recovery time blocks.
Checklist to close gap:
-lay out 3 most important tasks night before
- Once you pop you can’t stop!
-schedual day in the am after hour of power
-get first thing done before checking email / facebook etc.
-facebook time at the end of the day or while eating lunch.
- Scheduling system that helps tie motivation to goals. Tim Ferris system is awesome: Dreamline & 3 most important actions today. But when challenging days show up I need to remind myself of why I MUST do this and how important it is!

5) Work/Career/Mission: 10 - 5
Where I am now:
- I am still a little lost as far as having one major purpose to wake up to every day.
- Have determined short term focuses:
*Getting school done
*Making people smile on a daily basis is how I make a difference: Spreading the love!
*Setting up successful internet marketing company.
- I am confused as to what type of work I should be doing but as Lloyd Michaels (one of my financial mentors) said, “just get a job that pays the most money so you can easy some of the financial pressure you’re in. You only need to do it for a few months and it doesn’t have to take up that much of your time as long as you manage your time effectively.”
- My missions are to make a load of $ and save, to spread the love every moment, to continue my path of self improvement and to setting up a successful internet marketing company.

Where I want to be:
-I want to wake up stoked to work on one thing!
-I want to be motivated to work towards that one thing above all else.
-I want to commit to one thing and give it my all because I know that when I commit fully to something I will be extremely successful at it.
Closing the gap:
-Patience. There is no super rush.
-Continue to focus on doing things I love
-Keep learning about what I like/don’t like, love, what motivates me etc
-Spend time alone in silence.

6) Finances: 10 – 2
Where I am at:
- Significant improvement from last Gap Map
- Still haven’t found work but have been looking actively.
- I cut back spending but still enjoyed myself this month! One of the best months I’ve ever had and I spent the least!
-I now have Lloyd in place as my financial mentor.
- I now have Rob as my Internet Marketing mentor.
- I saved money this month and paid off debt!
- I got things moving again in my court case so that I can collect money from that.
-Got a payment plan for my business debt that is lower than I expected.
- Regularly assessing my progress.
-Talk to parents about them assuming my loan. This keeps money in the family. They make more than they would in a bank account. I pay half the fees & interest.
- Got a hearing scheduled for the damage deposit I haven’t got back yet from previous landlord.
- Been working on my financial belief systems EVERY morning:
THE TRUTH IS I’M A BORN MILLIONAIRE. IM A LEAN MEAN MONEY MAKING MACHINE. MONEY COMES EASILY TO ME.
THE TRUTH IS I’M A LEAN, MEAN, SMALL BUSINESS MACHINE. SETTING UP BUSINESSES TO MAKE MONEY IS EASY FOR ME. IM A BORN BUSINESSMAN AND A BORN MILLIONAIRE!
THE TRUTH IS THE LEVEL OF MY BANK ACCOUNT AND MY INCOME DO NOT DETERMINE THE LEVEL OF FUFILLMENT AND LOVE THAT I FEEL IN MY LIFE!!!
- I have been learning about world markets again so that I will be educated and ready to invest in the spring or the summer; whenever this market ‘bottoms out’.
Where I want to be:
- $0 obligations
- $10,000 per month
- The freedom to work from anywhere
- Beautifully furnished apartment with an inspirational view
- Sexy car that I enjoy driving – Lexus IS
- The flexibility to travel when I want
- Money in savings
- Funds invested in the right places guaranteeing my future financial stability
- Canucks Seasons tickets
- I want to do what I want, when I want, wherever I want. That’s NOT too much to ask!
- I want to be convinced that I am a born millionaire
- I want to believe that its easy to print my own money
Checklist to close the gap:
- Visualize my specific goal of $10,000 per month and things that I will have once I achieve that.
- To tie motivation to actions on a daily basis. Here is my motivation: Why do I want this?
a) I REALLY enjoy magic loving and free moments with people I love: friends and family.
b) I want to surround myself with beautiful things like nice furniture, nice cars, an apartment with an amazing view, and nice foods.
c) I want to be able to roll with ultra successful people!
d) TRAVEL - That is what life is about. Without financial abundance I can’t travel as I’d like to and will never be able to fully experience all that the world has to offer.
e) Tony Robbins – So I can set myself up with the mindset necessary to have a fulfilling, abundant life for as long as I live. To avoid in the long term, slipping back into depression and having people I love disappointed in me.
- I have to make it my TOP priority before school, women, music, being social while still doing these things now and again to keep my mind clear and my heart happy!
- Get my parents to commit to assuming loans to minimize my monthly expenses.
- Continue to monitor spending
-Work my ass off to slang tickets for the Cap Party.
- Find DJ work for Friday nights.
- Continue enforcing positive financial beliefs
- Continue celebrating whenever possible!
-Every day the first thing I get done is the thing that will help my finances the most!

7) Celebrate and Contribute: 10 – 9
Where I am now:
- Celebrating often by myself and with friends. My peer group is helping me out a ton with this!
- Celebrating every little win I have!
- Making people laugh and smile where ever possible
- On a number of occasions since UPW I have changed peoples states, made their nights, made them laugh when they were feeling blah, gave them a hug at the right time when they needed one or a squeeze on the shoulder. I am connecting with people and making a difference where it counts: the day-to-day interactions that make up the majority of our lives! :D
- Felling the connection with people. Feeling music. Feeling the feelings of gratitude and abundance which rubs off on other people.
- Celebrate for the win!
- Laughing a TON even when stuff happens that most people would perceive is bad.

Where I want to be:
- Doing this 24-7 365. I don’t want moments where I am caught up or down thinking about other stuff. I don’t want to let other people’s states or comments bring me down!
Checklist to close the gap:
- Make an effort to spread the love ALL THE TIME! Life isn’t about the money or things you have, its not about how much you achieved, its about LOVE!

Progress Update: Oct 30th

Hey guys,

I just wanted to give you a bit of an update.

Things have been going really well! I am happier than ever and I have been getting SO MUCH done in my life. I procrastinated on a lot of things before that I am now taking charge of. It feels great!

One thing I noticed is that when I don’t get off to a good start of the day, my whole day seems to end up off track. Today was a great example:

Just as I am about to wake up my Dad bursts into my room and starts yelling at me becuase he can’t figure out how to get wireless on his laptop. He has a PC and he was angry because he thought I setup the wireless router for MAC so I could use it (he doesn’t get computers or network stuff). So I wake up in an argument. I try to take his side and offer my assistance to try to diffuse his anger and he just gets more mad. After this I tried to do the hour of power but I found it extremely hard to get into…

The rest of the day was productive as far as getting stuff done but I found myself slipping into some old habits. The big one today was my eating. I WANTED junk food. I was craving it… I kept myself away from it but I was eating a lot of other stuff like bread and crackers which aren’t terrible but when I eat a lot of them then they are bad.

As Tony said, people eat and eat and eat to feel full. I wonder why the shaky start to my day causes me to crave a feeling of fullness? Perhaps it has something to do with the previous night where I had to spend the whole night in close proximity to my X girlfriend (awkward and emotional). When I do things for instant gratification, to feel good or feel full, its because an area of my life isn’t feeling good or full.

Now that I break it down, when I start out the day feeling great about everything it makes sense that I wouldn’t get urges for things of an instant gratification nature in the way that I do when I start off poorly.

I have also noticed the same thing happens when I log onto my computer before I do my hour of power. I check one email, then I have to see something else, then I have to respond to something else, then its a facebook message, then I start thinking about all of the things I should be doing instead of yelling stuff in a park (Hour of Power haha) which I still haven’t done … pretty soon its an hour later and getting into my hour of power is borderline impossible.

The healthy eating, my upgraded mindset and all of the other tools I took away from Tony have been doing such GREAT things for me otherwise. I don’t want to de-rail myself and give myself the opportunity to get back into poor habits.

Every morning – no matter what – the first things before ANYTHING is the hour of power: – water & lemon

-Movement: bouncing around and getting my blood flowing
-Gratitude: all of the things in my life & magic moments
-Celebration for my gratitude
-New beliefs: ...THE TRUTH IS….
-What I want the future to be
-Celebrate for my amazing future
-Affirming beliefs: ...NOW I AM THE VOICE… & STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN
-Celebrate: “you are so beautiful” “you are beautiful” then dance and celebrate hard

-Great green alkaline foods
-Oils

-More lemon and water

-Regular breathing and celebration breaks

If I start to crave unhealthy foods I will take 10 deep breaths, drink water with lemon and if I still feel hungry for it I will run through a list of all of the things I am greatful for. This will be my new pattern to make me feel full when I slip and feel like something isn’t right.

Old pattern: resorting to food to make me feel full.
New pattern: stopping, breathing, hydrating (with lemon!) and feeling greatful to make me feel full!

Looking forward to reporting back on my life and hearing about yours soon,

~Sean

Recent Warren Buffet Article - Worth Reading!

Buy American. I Am.

By WARREN E. BUFFETT

Omaha

THE financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.

So … I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.

Why?

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Let me be clear on one point: I can’t predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven’t the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower a month — or a year — from now. What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.

A little history here: During the Depression, the Dow hit its low, 41, on July 8, 1932. Economic conditions, though, kept deteriorating until Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933. By that time, the market had already advanced 30 percent. Or think back to the early days of World War II, when things were going badly for the United States in Europe and the Pacific. The market hit bottom in April 1942, well before Allied fortunes turned. Again, in the early 1980s, the time to buy stocks was when inflation raged and the economy was in the tank. In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price.

Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

You might think it would have been impossible for an investor to lose money during a century marked by such an extraordinary gain. But some investors did. The hapless ones bought stocks only when they felt comfort in doing so and then proceeded to sell when the headlines made them queasy.

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value. Indeed, the policies that government will follow in its efforts to alleviate the current crisis will probably prove inflationary and therefore accelerate declines in the real value of cash accounts.

Equities will almost certainly outperform cash over the next decade, probably by a substantial degree. Those investors who cling now to cash are betting they can efficiently time their move away from it later. In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky’s advice: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”

I don’t like to opine on the stock market, and again I emphasize that I have no idea what the market will do in the short term. Nevertheless, I’ll follow the lead of a restaurant that opened in an empty bank building and then advertised: “Put your mouth where your money was.” Today my money and my mouth both say equities.

Warren E. Buffett is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a diversified holding company.

~~~***SAME GOES FOR CANADIAN EQUITIES

Focus on my finances updated!

Patrick said:

"One area I think needs to be further narrowed down is tools. What specifically will you create as financial vehicles, and how much income will each of those vehicles generate? What job will you get? How much undisturbed time, and when?"

Here is how I replied:

I am making $5000 per month: DJing $1200 -Rec Center – $400 -Promoting – $1500 Job – $2000 -I am allocating my income properly -I use Bi-weekly tracking oOn the 1st and the 15th of every month in my spreadsheet. -I have set some financial rituals and rules: I use spending budgets oI am constantly working on my financial mindset oI read one new book a month on finances oI Update the peer group on my financial position monthly oEvery day the first thing I get done betters my finances

Scheduling & Focus

-I use 60 min blocks of focused time. No distractions. -I finish whatever I start -I say no to things that aren’t in line with my goals. -I have eliminated time wasting activities & people

Focus on my finances

GENTLEMEN! mmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..YES!

After doing the wheel of fufillment and the gap map it is now clear what I need to focus on: my finances. Everything right now in my life is around 7.5 – 9 except for two things: 1) My purpose / mission in life and 2) My financial situation.

1) My purpose and mission in life is something I need to get down. I really want to wake up and having one HUGE thing to contribute to every day the way that Tony does and some other guys do. That being said, I do not feel rushed to find it. I have a feeling that if I just keep playing full out it will come to me. This is why I rated this a 4. Its not bad.

2) My finances are going to be the major focus here. I scored myself a 0.5. I currently have $40,000 in business debt that I owe personally. I pay out $250 a month in interest and fees on my visa & a line of creid, both of which I took out for my business. I pay $400 a month to the major business loan that I have. And I have some smaller bills floating around that I need to take care of: $300 to my accountant, $250 in parking / speeding tickets.

The biggest challenge that I have faced is that I don’t have any cash flow. I was working at Lexus to pay back debt but quit because it was un-fulfilling. Since then I have been hesitant to jump back into another job because I don’t want to throw myself into another situation where I am doing a job just for money and not because I enjoy it.

The great news is that I am renting out my apartment at a break even (I bought it a while ago) and am living at home. So my expenses aside from debt are almost nothing: $250 for gas / insurance for my car and $75 cell phone.

I have now turned what used to be a huge negative source of stress in my life into a positive motivator! This is the biggest challenge that I will ever face. This is the dip of my financial life! If I can get back from this think about how unstoppable I will be!

What has been is not what has to be! Just because I have had financial woes in the past does not mean that this has to continue in the future!

Here is my plan for getting through this:

1) Clear and specific Goals:

a) $5000 per month EVERY MONTH - Easy!
b) Attend “Financial Mastery” in March – I am wavering between committing to the financial mastery in March and the Date with Destiny this Dec.

2) Motivation: Why do I want this?

a) I REALLY enjoy magic loving and free moments with people I love: friends and family.
b) I want to surround myself with beautiful things like nice furniture, nice cars, an apartment with an amazing view, and nice foods.
c) I want to be able to roll with ultra successful people!
d) TRAVEL - That is what life is about. Without financial abundance I can’t travel as I’d like to and will never be able to fully experience all that the world has to offer.
e) Tony Robbins – So I can set myself up with the mindset necessary to have a fulfilling, abundant life for as long as I live. To avoid in the long term, slipping back into depression and having people I love disappointed in me.

3) Total Immersion:

The big reason why I have these financial obligations is because I haven’t been taking action. I’ve been doing a lot of stressing and not much DOING. Its time for me to actually focus 100% on this area of my life. Here’s how I plan to do this:

a) Work on my financial mindset daily during my hour of power and throughout the day!
b) I have to make it my TOP priority before school, women, music, being social while still doing these things now and again to keep my mind clear and my heart happy!
c) Find mentors that have been in my situation and who are now on top of the world. —-> Lloyd Michales is one but I’m going to look for others as well.
d) Model the mentors I find – do everything they do.
e) Regularly assess my progress!

4) Tools

– job for a source of income – $ plan: where to allocate $ – financial rituals and rules – Utilize our peer group for support / motivation / connections – alter my spreadsheet to make it more frequent than monthly – Daily action – what can I do today to increase cash flow / limit expenses? – Prioritize and schedule. – Using chunks of focus, undisturbed time to get shit done.

5) Alignment & Integration

a) EVERY DAY enforce positive supportive financial beliefs.
b) Celebrate HARD any time progress is made!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts everyone. I’d love some feedback. Any ideas you have are valued and appreciated.

A new beginning! YESSSS!!!!

Hey guys,

I want to start by saying that I am so glad that I got to share this weekend with all of you. It truly was a magical weekend. LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!

I took so much away from this weekend! Here are the big changes I’ve implemented:

- Every day since UPW I have been doing my “Hour Of Power”. I get up early and the first thing that I do is get out of bed and start jumping around to get my lymph system going and to wake me up. I get some water with some lemon in it and drink it as I get dressed. I go outside and make my way up to this street in my neighbourhood that overlooks the entire city. On the way I go over four things:

• everything I’m greatful for
• how exciting the future is going to be and what I want it to be
• my old beliefs and how they are BS and the truth is….!!!!
• celebrate being me

I’m standing there yelling and singing with my ipod on. People are walking by, looking at me, stopping in their car. I love it! I have become an example of what people want to be: happy and full of energy!

This charges up my emotions and gets the momentum going for the day. If you guys aren’t doing this yet, try it!

- Being a vegetarian, sort of. I decided that for 30 days Im not going to eat any meat, dairy or anything unhealthy. I will live by Tony’s health rules for 30 days. I’m hoping that by the 30 day mark it will be habit. This includes booze as well. I put Tony’s food combination sheet in my kitchen. I am going to buy a ton of vegetables later today!

So far I have had more energy than I have EVER had. EVER! I am eating salad, cucumber, broccoli, vitamins for breakfast and keeping eating healthy throughout the day. If I’m in a situation with a women or something and there is wine involved I may have a glass. If I’m stuck somewhere and the only thing to eat is chicken, I not 100% against doing that. I still plan to eat fish because I love sushi too much not too. But even with these small lapses in my commitment, I am living a 1000 times healthier life than before!

- Drinking lots of water with Lemon and being conscious of my PH. Yesterday I was feeling fatigued in the afternoon after getting a lot of work done in the am. I took Tony’s advice and took a bunch of deep breaths, and drank some water with a lot of lemon in it. I went back to my work and 15 mins later I was BUZZING. I just stopped my work and thought wow….I feel great. All that I can attribute it to is hydrating myself and making my body more alkaline from the 3 slices of lemon I had in it.

- Celebrating often. Every time I have any small reason to celebrate I will. Even when I don’t have a reason too and I think about it, I will celebrate. YES! Life is so sweet why not?

- I have given up TV and surfing the internet.

- I have made a commitment to breaking any state that doesn’t help me in my quest for happyness and LOVE. Any time I doubt myself, get angry at something, feel frustrated or discouraged, I will break the pattern however I can. THATS BULLSHIT. THE TRUTH IS…..YES! seems to work really well so far. I really want to keep this going and make supportive thinking (as opposed to destructive thinking) a routine!

- Ice cold shower before bed. I tried this the other night and its a BITCH to get in but Tony is right, it made me pass right out. Try it!

- I did my Gap Map with Patrick and Cheyenne two days ago. I have it up on my wall now and I have decided to do one every 2 weeks to keep me regularly assessing my progress.

- I made decisions for myself:

1) I am a LEAN MEAN MONEY MAKING MACHING. Money comes easily to me!

2) I am a small business MACHINE! Business and Money come easily to me!

3) I am going to make time for my passions: Hockey, Music, Reading, Surfing, Quality time with people I love, Dancing and time in quiet for myself.

4) I am going to attend and easily pay for the Tony Robbins Date With Destiny in Orlando on December 11th!

- I am dedicated to surrounding myself with upbeat, loving, positive, fun, outgoing, successful people like everyone at the UPW event. I want to stay close with you guys. I am going to rely on you to keep me on track sometimes and to pump me up. Patrick and I have been doing this. We’ve been calling each other whenever anything good happens and to tell each other about our outstanding days. When I get that call from Patrick with good news it pumps me up and I love sharing my successes with him as well!

In conclusion:

The best part about all of these changes is that they felt totally natural. I haven’t had to fight watching tv or eating shit food. Its been a natural change and its a change that needed to happen. I FEEL GREAT!

I know that a dip will come in this new lifestyle of mine. At some point my old life of junk food, TV, thinking negatively, doubting myself and my old belief system will try to creep back. I am looking forward to it. I am going to learn into it. When challenges step up, I STEP UP!

Broke 2 Stoked Introduction

Still high from the Tony Robbins UPW event, I have been writing a lot of emails back and forth with friends. A lot of these emails are getting amazing responses.

I decided to compile these emails and my thoughts here partly for therapy (to get all of my crazy thoughts out of my head) but also to track my progress towards where I want to be.

Up until the UPW event I was slipping into depression. My eating habits were BRUTAL: chips, pop, pizza, burgers, ice cream etc. I had zero direction in life bouncing from one thing to the next. I was also $40,000 in debt and didn't see much of a way out (but really wasn't taking any action).

Now I have more of a sense of direction. Now I am eating a lot better. Now I am on track to being who I want to be and I want you to learn from my journey!