What I am about to say might be slightly taboo. You don't need a resume to get a job. In fact, a normal resume might even hurt your chances and landing your dream job. Confused? Let's continue.
The Informal Job Market. That's what you need to start working on instead of your resume that they teach you about in college and High School. This is what is going to put you in the position to meet great people and land your dream job
Michael Ellsberg, author of "The Education of Millionaires", expounds on this idea. To sum up what he said in the article "8 Steps to Getting What You Want... Without Formal Credentials", College degrees don't guarantee that you land a job anymore. Just because you have 4 or more years in a University, doesn't mean that your application is necessarily going to shine through the thousands of other college degree applications. You need to do something EXTRA.
Ellsberg Suggests developing skills that are super employable. Don't just learn about what you want to do. Actually do it and learn from your failures. Start a blog, write about your experiences, and tell people what you have learned in the field you have chosen. Start creating a Network of awesome professional connections that might help you land a job in the future. Do this by giving freely of your time and energy and helping out these connections in any way you can. Be generous with others and they will help you in return. Find mentors to guide you along the way and lastly, learn sales and sell who you are to the world.
So that is a super brief explanation of Ellsberg's approach to getting your dream job without the typical resume. You get it by knowing alot of people and constant self education on what you want to do. I highly recommend the original blog post because it is PACKED with eye-opening concepts.
Okay, so there you go! So, for those of you who want to be doctors and lawyers, you are probably going to have to stick to your 4.0's and cardstock resumes. For the rest of you, I may not have sold you on the idea of going out and burning your resumes, but I hope you understand the importance of building a network and continuing your self education. Now go out there and meet great people! You will thank me later.
Don't have time to read all the info in my blog posts? Now I have made it easy for you to learn some success tips on the go with my new SoundCloud Podcast series. I created a short playlist with a ton of information that I am sure will get you started in achieving physical and financial success. Enjoy and be sure to follow me on SoundCloud!
Do you ever wonder how some people seem to excel at everything in life? Do you feel at this point of your life that you are living the dream? Do you feel like you are reaching your full potential? Do you want to? In the next few minutes I'm going to give you a 5 step process to help you do just that.
(If you want to see a slightly shorter version of the five steps,
check out this video I made below!)
Step 1: Visualize Your Goals
This may seem like a such an easy suggestion but there is so much power in visualizing your goals. I mean, if you don't have a dream, you don't have anything to work for. Recently I read about the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger and I found that before he achieved any goal, he would visualize himself achieving it. Before he won his body building competitions,he would visualize himself achieving that award and being the most muscular man. Before he got into Hollywood he would see himself as one of the top paid actors. And he achieved both of those goals. So just sit there right now and do this yourself. Think of your ideal self a year into the future. Let your mind flow over everything that will be different. Will you be in better physical condition? Will you be more secure financially? Will you be an expert in a certain subject? Or will you just be happier with yourself and have some sort of super confidence? Whatever it is, try to imagine it the best you can and dwell on that.
Step 2: Write Down Your Goals
Now that you have imagined your ideal self, find a notebook and start writing down all the areas you need to work on to achieve this new you. For example when I did this, I imagined myself looking ripped and with a control over my money. So, for this first part I wrote down fitness and finances. If you want to be specific you can just have one theme to work on or you could have several. It doesn't really matter, just write it down.
Now that you know the basic themes for what you want to improve on, make your goals more specific. Instead of saying “I want to” say I will. This adds power to your goals and makes them more real. Also, make goals that push your limits, but something you feel comfortable and are within your reach. If you have a goal that’s too outlandish, you are just going to end up giving up on it. With these reasonable goals written down, they have been planted in your future and you have taken the incentive to shape your own destiny. Dang. That was deep. Once you have them written out, make several copies of these goals. Put them in places you will see often. Say them to yourself throughout your day and you will eventually program these goals into your subconscious mind. When you get to that point, working on your goals and improving will become second nature and you will do it automatically.
Now, the gap between who you are now and what you want in yourself may be HUGE. You know what? That's okay. Just go for it. As Tony Robbins said "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible."
Step 3: Plan and research
Now that you have your goals, find out how to achieve them. Meditate and let your mind work around it. You will find that your mind will discover ways of achievement. It sounds kinda mystical, but to put it bluntly, it’s just sitting down and thinking about it. Read books on the subjects you wrote down in step two. Read a book a week on these topics. If you can't sit down and read get an audible account and listen to a book while you are driving or doing chores. I started this a while back and I can honestly say it has changed my life. Bill Gates does this. Just saying
Also, find successful people and find out what they did to succeed. Read about their life stories. Find the strategies that they used and implement them in your own life (Example: if Bill Gates is financially successful and reads a book a week. If I want to be financially successful I am going to do the same thing.) If you can find an expert in what you want to improve on and make them your mentor or teacher. This is probably the best strategy to self improvement. So go out there and make friends with great people
Step 4: Believe in yourself and JUST DO IT! MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE
This may sound crazy but Shia LaBeouf was pretty spot on there. This is where things all come together and you start changing. You have a new vision of yourself, new goals and a plan to achieve these goals. Now is the time to start on that path. I can’t say too much more on this step than just give it your all. Do difficult things that others won’t so you can achieve success. Follow the advice of your mentors. Harvest the knowledge that people have (almost) freely given in books.
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill
Step 5: Rinse and Repeat:
You have the formula for success and change. But this isn't something you should just use once in you life. You should do this over and over. You can do this yearly monthly weekly or even daily for short term goals. If you do it hourly you are trying too hard. But really, let this plan of setting life goals and taking action change your life. I know it will.
I am going to share with you the the hidden secrets of the most famous bodybuilder of all time. Good ol' Arnie. The Governator. For the last week I have been listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography “Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story”. While this book didn't really cover bodybuilding as in depth as I thought it would, it did give a few key principles on how he got into his iconic shape. How did the big man get so big? Lets find out in four “easy” steps.
Work Out 4-5 Hours a Day 6 Days a Week:Basically, bodybuilding has to be a part-time job. Schwarzenegger found that splitting his workouts into a two hour training session, another one at night and maybe a shorter one in the middle of the day not only helped him finish 5 hours of working out a day, but he also found that his recovery times sped up a ton. So yeah, 24-30 hours of your week should be spent working out.
Eat Your Weight in Grams of Protein:This one is pretty simple. If you weigh 150 pounds, you need to eat 150 grams of protein a day. If you weigh 250 pounds, you need to eat like Conan the Barbarian and shovel in 250 grams of protein. Good luck.
“Shock” Your Muscles: I thought this concept was really cool. Schwarzenegger writes in his book that the body adapts quickly and if you do the same routine every day, your muscles are going to start getting used to it. Even if you are getting stronger and your are using more weight, your muscles will plateau and stop growing. That's why you have to “shock” them. That pretty much means switching up your routine and changing things up periodically. Now days, and from my experience with the P90X program, they will call this muscle confusion. Something he did when he noticed that one of his muscle groups were starting to plateau is do a workout targeting that certain muscle group by doing a set with a large amount of weight. After he had finished that he would take off five or ten pounds and do another set. He would repeat this process over and over until his muscles were on FIAH' (also known as “fire”). They now call this process a drop set. In a nut-shell, switch up your exercises and do some drop sets occasionally to stop the muscle plateau.
Set Your Goal as Being the Most Muscular Man on Earth: This was really the driving force for Schwarzenegger's workouts. He wanted to come to America, he found that he was talented in building muscle and he believed that if he became the most muscular man in the world it would be the ticket he needed to get to the States. As the Buddha once said, “The mind is everything. What you think you become”. Well, Schwarzenegger wanted to be the most muscular man alive and with that goal always on the forefront of his mind, he pretty much achieved it. Let's take a quick look at his bodybuilding record (taken from bodybuilding.com).
1965 Junior Mr. Europe in Germany
1966 Best-Built Athlete of Europe in Germany
1966 International Powerlifting Championship in Germany
1966 Mr. Europe - amateur in Germany.
1966 NABBA Mr. Universe - amateur in London, England
1967 NABBA Mr. Universe - amateur in London, England
1968 German Powerlifting Championship in Germany
1968 IFBB Mr. International in Tijuana, Mexico
1968 NABBA Mr. Universe - professional in London, England
1968 IFBB Mr. Universe in Miami, Florida (tall class winner)
1969 IFBB Mr. Universe in New York
1969 IFBB Mr. Olympia in New York (2nd place to Sergio Olivia)
1969 NABBA Mr. Universe - professional in London, England
1969 IFBB Mr. Europe - professional in Germany
1970 NABBA Mr. Universe - professional in London, England
1970 AAU Pro Mr. World in Columbus, Ohio
1970 IFBB Mr. Olympia in New York
1971 IFBB Mr. Olympia in Paris, France
1972 IFBB Mr. Olympia in Essen, Germany
1973 IFBB Mr. Olympia in New York
1974 IFBB Mr. Olympia in New York
1975 IFBB Mr. Olympia in Pretoria, South Africa
1980 IFBB Mr. Olympia in Sydney, Australia
I'd say that's pretty dadgum impressive.
Now, I don't claim this to be an exhaustive review on Schwarzenegger's workouts or how to become a professional bodybuilder. Even if you do this for a couple months don't expect to look like the Terminator. Building a superman-like body takes serious time and dedication. He even said in his book that he believes it takes about 10 years to build a “world class body” (even though he started winning competitions a few years earlier than that). If you want a more in depth review of his workouts, check out his book "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding". Some people consider it the "The Bible of Bodybuilding". I wouldn't know. I haven't read it yet :)
Personally, I haven't the time or patience for the bodybuilder life. I don't feel like I need to be the biggest man in the world, but I do believe that if you calm down on those principles I listed above you can set yourself up for a great physique. This book has inspired me to work out more often, up the protein in my diet for muscle growth and shock my muscles every once and a while to prevent running into too many muscle plateaus. If bodybuilding is your thing or you are thinking about getting into it, this may be a great start. I have come to find out that often, the way to greatness is to copy the strategies and methods of the greats that have come before you and then adapt these strategies to best fit your needs. Now that you know some basic strategies from one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, use this information to supplement you own physical fitness. I'm sure you will be glad you did.
-Travis Myers
PS- GET IN THE CHOP-PAH!!! I had to say it sometime :)
So here's a topic that has been on
my mind for awhile. Most people realize that it is important to save but at the same time, most people also agree that saving money that you could be using today is not an easy thing to do. After reading a couple books on finance I have found a concept that has completely shifted my mindset on how to save. Its so simple and powerful that I cant believe I had not thought of it before. If you have issues saving, this article might be the one thing you need to do to do the hokey pokey and turn your financial life around.
We live in a world that pretty much requires us
to save money if we don't want to go into serious debt (and hopefully
none of you aspire to live the rest of your lives in debt). We have
to save for things like a car, a home and a TON of other things. Not to
mention the “R word”. RETIREMENT. Buying a car usually requires a
large down payment if you don't want to pay a ton of money extra in
interest. The same thing goes for buying a house with a normal loan
requiring a 20 percent down payment. I know the math isn't really
complicated but lets just visualize this real quick. If you plan on
buying a $200,000 home be prepared to fish out $40,000. Yeah. That's
about the current median yearly salary in the United states. “So if
I save for a whole year without spending a cent I can buy a house!!!”
Ridiculous. Feeling overwhelmed? I know I was when I first sat down
and thought about it. Let's see if I can relieve some of that stress
I just caused you in 1 easy step :)
STEP 1: PAY YOURSELF FIRST
That's it. It's such a simple
concept but it's pretty flippin' powerful. People write books and books on the
subject but it can basically be summed up in a few short paragraphs.
In my mind it is the only way to budget and save that makes sense.
Let's see how it works.
Most people get their paycheck,
pay their bills, spend their money and maybe save whats left at the
end of the month...which is usually little to nothing. According to
creditdonkey.com (lovely name), approximately 26 percent of Americans
have NOTHING in their savings. And sadly this makes a lot of sense.
I don't know about everyone else, but if I have money in my checking
account or in my pocket, I always find some way to spend it. I can
hardly control myself. When I know I don't have any money however,
(and I don't have my credit card with me) it's super easy not to
spend anything...it's impossible. The concept of paying yourself
first automatically puts you in this situation. All you have to do is
get your paycheck and set aside how much you can afford to save
before anything you spend it on anything else. Of course, you do have to make sure that your
bills get paid but you get the main idea. I'll show you how I
implement a modified version of this in my own life.
I, like a lot of people, get paid
on a biweekly basis and receive my check every other Friday. On that
Friday morning I wake up and log on to my bank website and check my
statement. Because the internet is making everything easier I am able
to pay any bills that I have online. I love it. I figure out how much
to donate to tithing for my church, pay off any balance I might have
on my credit card and any other bills that have to be paid. After I
do that I look at the amount I have left and ask myself “how much
do I really need to survive for the next two weeks?” Now, when I
say survive, I mean SURVIVE. I mean I give myself the bare minimum to
live and keep my sanity. The rest I send right to my preferred method of savings AND I DON'T
TOUCH IT. I don't even consider it my money anymore (until I reach the amount I have been saving for). That way, after
I get paid I start out with a set amount of money added to my savings
account. It forces my savings to grow.
With this method, I can be
confident that I have enough money to last me for the next two weeks,
I have my bills paid, and I wont be tempted to spend the money I
should be saving...because I have already saved it. I realize that my
method may not exactly be paying myself first and it may not work for
everyone, but for me this method has changed the way I think about
money and I recommend it over any other method of saving I have heard
of. Try it. You'll thank me.
Now, like most of my articles, this
isn't an exhaustive resource on the concept of paying yourself first
but hopefully it has helped you dip your toes in the idea. Maybe you already use this concept and are thinking "everything you just said is just common sense, I do that already but I am still struggling to save". Well, to you I say try to save more than what is in your comfort zone. If that doesn't work, well then stick around for some of my later posts. I've got some more articles on saving coming right soon :)
There are so many books on the subject of saving and paying yourself first and there are many ways that you could go
about it. In David Bach's awesome book “The Automatic
Millionaire”, he explains in more detail how you can pay yourself
and make it happen automatically without you even having to log in to
your bank like I do. This article also doesn't really explain how to
eliminate debts, which is probably one of the best ways to build your
savings, but don't worry. I'll cover that topic soon. For now just
remember that the less you are spending on monthly debt payments, the
more money you have to save. (Or just read anything by Dave Ramsey)
Not
to “toot my own horn” or anything but with this method my fiance
and I have put ourselves on a perfectly feasible plan to purchase a
home in the next two years, and neither of us have super high paying
jobs. It has been incredible to me how effective this strategy is. As
Anthony Robbins said, “Knowledge isn't power; it's potential power.
Execution trumps knowledge any day of the week”. So now that you
know this secret, try it and see how it works for you. You'll be
surprised how much you can save. Who knows? It might just change your life.
BODY OF A GOD: How I went from 7 to 200 push ups a day in a matter of weeks
BEHOLD, a fitness program to rule all
others! This rumored workout program has changed the lives of many
in South America and now it has finally arrived to the lands of the North. It is the exact
program with which Zeus and Hercules trained. Okay, well maybe I
stretched the truth a bit. Here's the story on the Body of a God
program.
Right after high school I decided to
serve a mission for my church and I was called to serve in Mendoza
Argentina. It was a two year mission where other missionaries and I
would teach others, help them to gain faith and find as many service
opportunities as possible. It was an amazing life-changing
experience. While I was there also I came across what was called the Body of a God program.
It was created by the most ripped missionary in all of Argentina. I heard he
would start and end every day by doing HUNDREDS of push ups and crazy
self-resistance workouts. One of my friends wanted to know his
secret and how he got to his higher-than-average physical condition.
This was the result.
BODY
OF A GOD PROGRAM
PUSH-UPS:
-Week
1-3: 50 Wide: 35 Medium: 20 Close
-Week
4-6: 65 Wide: 50 Medium: 35 Close
-Week
7-9: 85 Wide: 70 Medium: 50 Close
-Week
10-12: 100 Wide: 80 Medium: 50 Close
-Forever
After: 120 Wide: 80 Medium: 50 Close
ABS:
-As
many sit ups as possible until it burns
-80-100
Crunches
-20-30
Full body crunches
-100
Bicycles
-100
Russian twists
-20-30
Leg lifts
-1
Minute bridge front, left, right
-STRETCH
That's it. You do that every day and rest on Sunday and you have the secret to the sculpted body you have always dreamed of. When I
heard of the program, for some reason I was hooked. “You mean I
can get ripped without weights or some crazy guy in a video yelling
at me?” At the time I heard about the program I could do seven
push-ups before I had to stop. SEVEN. At 6'6” and no muscle I was
a twig. I was a twig's twig, but for some reason I decided I could
to this. So I started. I had to give myself a week or two to warm
up an prepare myself for the workout, but when it began...IT BEGAN. I couldn't do
all the push ups at one time but I would just give myself enough
breaks until I finished them all. I was SOO sore for weeks.
Eventually, the push ups got easier. I got less sore and I started
seeing results. I started taking pictures to see my progress and
after 3 weeks I was SHOCKED. The next three weeks? Shocked. When I
finished my 12th week I took my last picture and I was
super impressed by the results. I went from barely being able to do
7 push ups to breezing through over 200 every morning. I was writing
home about my progress and my family would cheer me on and ask me for
copies for the program. The kids we would play soccer with in the street started calling me "Hercules". I was in the best shape of my life and I was
more confident than I had ever been. Well, other
missionaries started to notice my “transformation” and after
seeing my progress pictures EVERYONE wanted the program. It spread
like wildfire throughout all the missionaries in Mendoza.
Missionaries I had never met would come up to me and ask me about the
program and would want to see my transformation pictures. It was
kinda ridiculous to tell you the truth. I would post the pictures but
using Argentine internet cafes on a weekly basis corrupted all my
picture files :( As much as I
liked the program, it did have some flaws. I felt like the front part
of my body was getting so strong that it felt like may body and
shoulders were being pulled forward. I'm sure the push ups did a lot
of good for my back but I wish there were more workouts for the back
and lats and legs to balance everything out. I felt pretty ridiculous
because I could do 200 push ups no problem but I couldn't do more
than 2 chin-ups. And you can't skip leg day. SPOILER ALERT: If
you are all “gung-ho” about the workout, this may ruin it for ya
so read at your own risk. At the end of my two years in Argentina I
finally met the missionary that crafted the Body of a God program. He
greeted me with a large muscular smile and asked to see my
transformation pictures. He saw my photos, he legitimately
congratulated me for my progress and then told me the whole thing was
a joke. He made the Body of a God because he thought it would be
funny to see a someone try to do that program. That someone gave it
to me. He made an impossible ridiculous workout and NEVER expected
anyone to finish it or for the program to spread. I couldn't stop
laughing when he told me. I got ripped because I was tricked into
someone else's practical joke, and then I spread that throughout a
whole group of missionaries in South America. Who knows, it's
probably still being spread around to this day. Hopefully that
didn't ruin your day and your motivation to do the workout but, hey.
Whatever works right? Well, that's it.
Now you know the secret to the “Body of a God”. Give it a shot if
you like. It changed my life even if it wasn't meant to :) -Travis Myers
For quite some time I was lost when it
came to credit. I had no idea what it was for and everything I had
ever heard about it made it seem like an evil snare to trap the
unassuming buyer. In some ways this can be true, but I have realized
recently some ways that credit can be a great help to you and your
financial future. I can't cover everything there is to know about
credit in just one blog post, but hopefully with these principals you
will be better prepared for you financial future.
Two years ago I got my first credit
card because I had always heard that it was important to build
credit, but I had no idea why. I didn't want to get into debt so I
only used my card when I knew I had the cash in hand to pay the
balance. I didn't use it very often but eventually I got more and
more comfortable with my card. After awhile however I found that my
balance crept up on me and I had almost reached the limit of my
credit card. I was shocked that it had gotten so high in such a
little time. I didn't really know what to do about it so I started
reading and asking around. I asked a man from church that used to be
a financial adviser what advice he could give me on the subject of
credit and we had about an hour long conversation on the subject I
was shocked by how much I didn't know. Here are a few pointers he
gave me.
You Need Credit: You can't
buy a home or car (unless you magically have all the money you need)
without a good credit score. People need some sort of way to measure
your trustworthiness towards your payments and a credit score is
what people normally use to determine that. If you have bad credit,
you either wont give you the loan you need or they will charge you a
lot more in upfront fees and interest. If you don't have credit, go
to your bank and see if they can set you up with a credit card. If
not, find some way to get a credit card and hold onto it for a bit. I would recommend having one or two credit cards (no more than that) and maybe some sort of low interest loan. Mortgages are almost unavoidable so those are okay too when you have them. I'll talk more about that in a later post.
Never make minimum payments: The
more minimum payments you make, the more interest you will pay and
the longer you will be in debt. A method I use to help with this is
I pay a little on my credit card as soon as I get my check from
work. That way I force myself to pay off any debts and it doesn't
hurt as much to make little payments here and there in contrast to
paying a big amount at the end of the month and having to scramble
around trying to find the money. Let me just say this again, NEVER MAKE A LATE PAYMENT...EVER. This hurts your score a lot. This may not have anything directly to do with credit but the most scary thing I learned is that if you miss a payment to an insurance agency, you have just given them the right to not insure you when you need it. Example: “Oh, you broke your arm and need us to cover medical expenses? Well, here it looks like you missed a payment a year ago...you can fix your arm yourself.” That missed payment is going to hurt in so many more ways than one.The best practice would probably be
using the credit card sparingly and paying the balance off in full
at the end of the month and putting important payments on auto-draft.
Hidden Traps: This is the section
that scared me. If you have spent more than half your credit limit
on your card YOU ARE HURTING YOUR CREDIT SCORE. Make sure you never
go over 50% of your credit limit. If you have a $500 credit limit
make a mental note that your actual limit is $250 and you cannot go
over that. You go over and you are killing yourself financially.
Have you ever been offered some kind of financing program at some
department store? DON'T FREAKING DO IT. In these kinds of offers
they are pretty much giving you a maxed out credit card for the
price of the item. It automatically hurts your credit as soon as you
sign up. Get a loan from a bank or just bite the bullet and save up
for that expensive item you need. PLEASE don't ever use in store
financing. Lastly, don't ever get a loan from a place that looks like a
run-down fast food restaurant. You are going to pay out the wazoo in
interest and if it looks sketchy, it probably is.
The World is More Expensive With
Bad Credit: What I never realized until recently is that if you have
bad credit, you are going to pay more...for everything. We live in a
world and financial system where the rich tend to stay rich and the
poor stay poor. As sad as it is, our system makes it super hard to
break this trend. I could go into a ton of detail on this subject,
but I think it will suffice to say if you don't up your credit score
by paying debts on time and keeping your debt low as a whole, you
will pay more thousands of dollars more on your car, your
insurances, and even your home. Frankly, you can't afford to have
bad credit.
That may be a lot to take in but I
know that these little bits of information help. In the past 3 years
I have seen my credit score go to nothing to almost a 750. My Fiance's score wasn't so hot for awhile because she fell into some of
the traps I mentioned in Point #3, but in the past year we have seen
her score climb 100 points just by making an extra effort to pay off
debts and being aware of the information above. This still isn't
everything there is to know about credit, but this is what got me
started and I hope it has helped you. With this new knowledge, you
are ready to take control of your money and succeed in
becoming financially fit.
