Sinners repent! Can the 7 Deadly Sins of life be translated to wealth and success?  You bet.

When I drink too much caffeine and can’t sleep, I turn to the Church Channel.   Once I tune in, I usually fall asleep within minutes.

While listening during my last insomniac episode, the pastor discussed the 7 Deadly Sins of life.  As I dozed off and subconsciously absorbed the message, I was amazed at how much the deadly sins correlated to general happiness, success, and financial freedom.

Of course, I use the term “wealth” as a synonym for both financial freedom and happiness.  Feel free to apply your own personal definition.  Here are the translations:

Deadly Sin #1: GLUTTONY

Not a week goes by when I don’t read an article about a star NFL athlete or once-famous actor who is now broke.  It was recently reported that Terrell Owens earned $80 million dollars over his career and is teetering now near bankruptcy.

For wealth, deadly sin #1 is gluttony where you spend everything you earn, and then more.

In my book, The Millionaire Fastlane, I characterize these individuals as Sidewalkers.  Sidewalkers live paycheck-to-paycheck, contract to contract, gig-to-gig, deal-to-deal, and spend every dollar they earn on lifestyle improvement.  Lifestyle is directly correlated to income.   If you earn $40K/year, you’re buying $40 jeans.  If you earn $400K/year, you’re buying $400 jeans.

The shocking news about the Sidewalking mindset is that it is blind to income and akin to a casino — the Sidewalk, or lack of financial discipline, doesn’t care how much you make because in the end, the casino always wins. While it seems Terrell was less of an extravagant spender than your average star athlete, his mortgage payments on 3 properties scattered across the country is reportedly almost $750,000/year.

REPENT: Always live below your means with an INTENT TO EXPAND your means.   The Fastlane is about exponential income while keeping expenses linear.  Unfortunately, follow most financial talking-heads and they will have you focusing on the wrong variable in the wrong equation.  Expense dickery (cut the coffee, cancel the movie channels) won’t make you a millionaire in a decade or less; an explosive income (or asset) will.

Deadly Sin #2: LUST

Lust causes us to make poor choices, and poor choices will put you in the poor-house.  Sources report that Terrell Owens has 4 baby-mamas. Here is an excerpt from the GQ article:

Friends may not be calling, or teams, but lawyers, a slew of them, definitely have him on speed dial. Especially those who represent the four women to whom he pays a total of $44,600 a month in child support for his four children, ages 5 to 12: “If there’s anything I’m sorry about, it’s getting involved with all that.” He never actually dated any of the women, he says. One was a one-night stand, the others “repeat offenders.”

Owens, who has never been married, concedes he is “not a very good judge of character.” Still, he “never suspected they were the types to do what they done in the past year.” Last summer, when the money started to dry up for real and the extent of his financial disaster became clear, he reduced the amount he paid to each of the women. Three of them sued him. When he failed to show up for a court date with the mother of his oldest child, Tariq, because it conflicted with his public tryout, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. “She wouldn’t reschedule,” he says, his hands reaching out unconsciously as if strangling an imaginary neck. “She’d pressed me in a deposition about if I intended to try to get on another team, but then when I do the workout, do what I can to get work, this is what she does.”

Now he is in court with all four women, whom he lumps together like one big bloodsucking blob. None of them are being fair, he says: “They know I’m not working; they know the deal.” Although he never established regular visitation with any of the children through the courts, he says he sees the eldest three as much as he can when their mothers allow it. So bitter is his relationship with the mother of the youngest child, a son, that he has never met the boy.

When you “gotta have something” you will constantly put yourself into troublesome circumstances.  From that gorgeous busty model in the VIP section at the club to that brand new Acura financed over 60 years at 20% interest.

REPENT: Pay close attention to those “must have” things.  Will they introduce “can’t avoid” consequences into your life?  Every action you take has potential consequences. Most people can’t critically think past the point of “feel good”. If you’re 30 years old and have 4 baby-mamas, you’ve just shackled several decades of “can’t avoid” consequences into your life. Will that hot one-night-stand be an evening you will never forget?  And for the wrong reason?  Yes, that brand new car will make you feel good for a few weeks, but what about next year when the newer, latest-and-greatest model comes out and you’re stuck with that “cant afford” $699/mo payment for the next 5 years?

Deadly Sin #3: GREED

Greed will not only put you in the poor house, it will put you in the jail house.

People who are greedy are often exposed for fraud and end up on the front pages of the New York Times or in court.  Greed has built many failed empires, from the fictional character Gordon Gekko, to the real life stories of Bernard Madoff, Enron, and HealthSouth.

Gekko said “greed is good” but it’s only good when it brings true value to the marketplace.  Self-interest is responsible for a lot of great products that we happily consume.

Unfortunately, in some cases greed overtakes ethical and moral boundaries and becomes symbolic to the love of money at any cost.  Greed can cause you to have a contemptuous disregard for what actually causes money to change hands.

Anyone can make millions by lying, cheating, and deceiving because the value equation is distorted beyond the legitimate marketplace offerings.  When a small internet bank offers you a 10% one year CD and the closest competitor is offering 1%, the value equation is distorted causing “easy money” to flow.

Uncontrolled greed is a sign that you lack the patience to build a legitimate value equation that the world will honor.  In contempt for the process, the shortcut is taken and a deceitful value equation is offered.  (12% guaranteed return!  Forced matrix guarantees you’ll earn $1,000s for 45 seconds of work per day!)  In other words, you overpromise and underdeliver.   Here are some great cons perfected by GREED.

REPENT: Understand that money is a byproduct of value.  The more value you provide, the more money you make.  Uncontrolled greed will misrepresent the value equation in order to cheat the value exchange.  Whenever you see “too good to be true” you’re probably seeing greed, not extraordinary value!

Deadly sin #4: SLOTH

Apathy will kill anything.

From “passive income” businesses to that blooming marigold on the window sill.  The world is constantly evolving.  If you make a living on the internet, the evolution is 10X as quick.  If you sit back and bask in your accomplishments, you’ll find that someone else has come along and taken the spotlight.

This *sin* was the #1 reason why I sold my company — I was apathetic and no longer enjoyed the process.  A sale was a no brainer because to “sit back” and enjoy the nice cash flow would have been a slow-drip death.  Our businesses, and our lives, must constantly evolve with change.

As they say, the only constant is CHANGE.   The good news?  Change, and the disruption it causes, is what creates millionaires. Ebooks are disrupting publishing. (I now own a publishing company). Blogs are disrupting newspapers.  The internet killed the Yellow Pages.  Mobile/tablet apps are disrupting the internet. Disruption ensures that the grave penalty for sloth is death.

REPENT: If you’re not growing, you’re dying.  I like to follow a path of KAIZEN which is Japanese for continual improvement.  Everyday I try to improve on something, no matter how marginal.  It could be something as so simple as learning a new CSS or HTML tag.  Marginal daily gains equals spectacular yearly gains. Although with continual improvement, there is one caveat:  Be careful not to get lost in “future thinking” — the old “Ill be happy ‘when this’, ‘when that’” syndrome.  Enjoy the moment and relish your daily improvements.  Love today and be excited about tomorrow.

Deadly Sin #5: ANGER

I’d rather be a happy thousandaire than an angry millionaire.

I heard to harbor rage and anger at someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Anger can be a powerful motivator, but it isn’t the emotion I’d want to rely on.

One expectation I prepared for prior to authoring a book was the idea that I would face “haters” or people who didn’t like what I had to say.

Newsflash: This is normal.

Anytime you stand for something, especially something that is an outlier position, you will face headwinds.  Anytime you expand your horizons and risk putting yourself out there, you will face this kind of negativity.

Don’t get angry because anger doesn’t change their reality, it can only change yours. Why on earth would you give some idiot who thinks the best use of his time is to troll YouTube spreading his negative mindset, this kind of power?

No matter how many people write false or negative things about me, I don’t allow it to impact my life.  When a blogger writes The Millionaire Fastlane sucks, and/or MJ’s message sucks, does it alter the dream I am living? Nope. The best revenge is living well.

REPENT: Expect headwinds (haters, liars, negative Nancys) on your journey.  Not everyone likes coffee– why get upset at those who don’t?

Deadly Sin #6: ENVY

In the movie, Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps, Shia Lebouf asks the rich financier, Josh Brolin “How much money is enough?  What number is enough for you?“  His answer? 

MORE.

I believe MORE is ENVY.

Envy is a prescription for unhappiness because there will always be someone else with something better, bigger, and faster.  In other words, the illusion of MORE never arrives. MORE keeps you confined in future thinking and denies all the joys of your present.

Instead, find your ENOUGH.

I’ve found my enough and while MORE would be a sweet surprise, I don’t need it.

If I wanted MORE (4 Lamborghinis instead of 1, or a 12,000 square ft house instead of 4,500) I’d be in trouble.  I’d be back on the treadmill of the rat race facing sleepless nights and pressure filled deadlines.  When you want for nothing and find your ENOUGH, it’s a great place to be.  Find your ENOUGH and you’ll find happiness too.

REPENT: Strive for more, but know how much and what exactly is your enough.  Be grateful for what you have. (Many people around the world don’t have clean water, toilets, food, etc.)  You might be shocked at how close you are to “enough” — once you get there, you gain immunity from the rampant message of consumerism.  My personal turning point of happiness was at age 27 and ironically, I was broke — it was the 1st time in my life I was fully self-supportive via entrepreneurship.

Deadly Sin #7: PRIDE

I see a troublesome pattern in today’s youth.  They are terribly self-absorbed and self-entitled.  Play a sport and wham, you get a trophy regardless of performance, effort or improvement.  People think they deserve everything without obedience to process, accomplishment, or effort.

Take out mortgage you can’t afford?  You deserve a better rate.

Rear end grandma in a fender-bender?  You deserve a large cash award from some rich insurance company.

Graduate from college?  You deserve a high paying job, full with paid vacations and stock options.

We’re being mindlessly bred to believe we deserve everything without obedience to real effort or good decision-making.  We’re being taught a laundry-list of narcissistic self-centered mantras such as live your dreams, follow your passion, “do what you love” and other market-indifferent proverbs.

This is PRIDE, an insidious evolution of the “you are special” crowd, an endowment ingratiated on everyone by simply existing.

If you want to be special, be special and make a difference in the life of someone else.

There is nothing special about normal.  There is nothing special about doing nothing.

If you think you’re “too cool” “too hot” or “too smart” to be picking up dog shit or mopping floors at the local IHOP, you’ll likely never escape the confines of normal because you’ve already elevated yourself to a special, illusionary place in your mind.

Every day I get emails from readers who will take time to write me a note of thanks like “Your book was great” or “it changed my life.” — writing a book doesn’t make you or I special, only the impact that book has on others gives you the chance.

REPENT: Expect to get your hands dirty.  Entrepreneurs who aren’t afraid of getting down in the mud aren’t afraid of failure nor the setbacks that come with the territory. Pride makes you fear failure and fear of failure will prevent you from acting. If you’re goal is to make $1M in 1 year and yet, you’re “too good” to figure out how to earn $1K in 1 month, you’re pride is standing in the way.   You can’t help millions until you learn how to help one — often that will require a sacrifice and a swallowing of pride.

Repentance!

To conclude, the are a lot of seemingly wealthy people who are miserable and my bet is that their misery is financed from one or more of these sins.   None of us are immune, including me.

In my younger years, I struggled with gluttony in many aspects of life, from food, to “stuff”.  Now older and wiser, my bigger struggle is SLOTH, or apathy.  I’m very content and happy — sometimes I categorize this as a potential sloth and haven’t quite learned how to deal with the guilt of always feeling the need to “do something”.  Yes, on days when I do nothing, I sometimes feel guilty and wonder, I am being SLOTHFUL?

In your own life story, what sin(s) do you struggle with?

What is seen, cannot be unseen, and sometimes, you have to know when that works to your favor.

Anytime you build a relationship with someone, you essentially take the passenger seat of their car.

If they’re reckless, your life can get equally reckless.  People, and the relationships we build with them, are like winding roads; they can take you in spectacular new directions or perilous detours.

The detours are hazardous to your success, to your health, and to your happiness.

A perfect example occurred when I was a teenager.

I had a friend named Dave.  I appreciated Dave’s friendship because he was strong, aggressive and confident while seemingly immune to what anyone said about him.  It was a quality I admired.

But I soon learned that Dave was a dangerous friend and my continued “passage” in his car would be a dangerous cocktail to my life.

You see, one day I went to Dave’s house and Dave’s real self became visible.  Dave’s mother wanted him to take out the garbage to which he retorted “F*ck you, you d*ckless woman!” (Yes, I kid you not!!)

I was shocked.

My mouth fell to the floor.

Dave’s mother’s response was equally shocking — she absorbed the disrespect, did nothing, and reiterated the demand.

Later, Dave and I were playing in the backyard which neighbored a large grassy meadow.  In the meadow, Dave captured a mouse and tossed it into a coffee can.  Then, he walked over to a pile of dead brush, lit it on fire, and tossed the mouse into the fire.  He laughed and cajoled in utter amusement as the mouse scampered about helplessly and burned to death.

I stood there mortified.  Thirty years later and this scene is still burned into my head like it just happened weeks ago.

At that moment, I knew I never wanted to see Dave again and my admiration turned into trembling fear.   Hiding my terror, I non-nonchalantly said “that’s not cool” and told him that I had to go home and do homework.

After I returned home, I told my mother.  Although I already decided that I didn’t want to see Dave again, she followed up my own decision with her own forbidding as well.  “No more Dave on the bus, after school, or anywhere else!” While I continued to see Dave in the school hallways, I was successful in avoiding Dave and he faded from my life …. until about 6 years later…

The entire City of Chicago would soon meet Dave in murderous infamy: Headline news reported that Dave unloaded a gun on a police officer after a high speed chase.  I also learned that he had a “passenger” in his car during the whole incident.  Dave, was later tried for murder as an adult, and convicted. 

He is spending the rest of his life in prison.

And what about his passenger?  Was he a willing or unwilling participant?  Regardless of the passenger’s intent, you can bet that his life from that moment became instantly skewed to the negative.

I wonder… had I not made the choice years earlier to abandon this friendship, could Dave’s passenger have been me? If so, I doubt my life would be the same.

The fact is, everyday we make decisions, not just “action” decisions, but relationship decisions.  Who is in your life WHO SHOULD NOT BE in your life?  Who is NOT in your life that NEEDS TO BE?

You see, people are like currents on a river; when you saddle up in a relationship, their currents and tradewinds can drag you wherever they go.  Some currents lead to favorable destinations and circumstances, while others are not so rosy.

A lot of people like to talk about wealth and financial freedom but fail at many of the things that make financial freedom impossible.  Poor choices make poor people.  If you’re chained to bad relationships and the poor circumstances they produce, can you ever expect to succeed at anything?  Countless psychological studies have proven that happiness leads to success — success doesn’t lead to happiness!

Examine your relationships choices.  Is it time you take out the trash?  Or worse, are you the trash that someone else has to take out?

Think about it.

Have you trashed any friends in your past where today, you can safely predict saved you from a personal tragedy?

~ MJ

A few months before my book released, I went to the book store and snapped a picture of a store shelf.

I then “photoshopped” my book on the shelf, and visualized it one day being there.  Here is the picture of the fantasy visualization (Notice the poor photoshopping job I did!)

So why do I do this?  Was I using a visualization, Law of Attraction technique?

One of my GOALS of The Millionaire Fastlane was to walk into any Barnes and Noble bookstore and see my book on the shelf.

Now if you’re wondering why is this even a goal, let me give you some background and statistics.

The odds of getting a one-book publisher, self-published one title-author, into a bookstore is SLIM-AND-NONE.

First, many trade distributors won’t even carry your book in their catalog to make it “eligible” to show up on the shelf.

Second, even if you do get a distributor to carry your book, the Barnes and Noble has to make the order.

Third, according to Bowker, there are over 250,000 books published EVERY YEAR.  This means a bookstore has an inventory sampling of over 1,000,000 to fill their shelves. For a book store to make room for your book, in their store, your book has to be considered in the top 1% of that number, OR, have a heavy backing from a major publisher. (Penguin, Wiley, etc.)

So fast forward to present day.

Last night I was at dinner and there just happened to be a Barnes and Noble next door.  After dinner, I took a quick detour and went inside B&N to see if my book was there.

Guess what!?  IT WAS! (Ha Ha, and next to Suze Orman no less!)

Goal achieved!

So I ask you this … how did I accomplish this goal?  Positive thinking?  Visualization of the end goal by snapping that photo so many months ago?  Or just plain old FN hard work?

The answer is probably not something you want to hear.  The LOA had nothing to do with it.  It’s called HARD WORK and RESPECT FOR PROCESS.

Snapping a picture of a store shelf and photoshopping my book on the shelf took 7 minutes. (An Event).

Driving demand for my book took OVER A YEAR. (A Process).

You see, the only way I was going to get my book on the B&N store shelf was to drive customers into the store and have them ASK for the book.

You do that through DEMAND. NEED. WANT.

When that happens repeatedly, the bookstore finally makes a decision and says “We’re getting a lot of inquiries for this book–we have to put this on the shelf!” Steve Martin said it best … “Be so good, they CAN’T ignore you.”  I guess selling tens of thousands of book in webspace was enough to translated to realspace.

Whatever your goal, you have to understand the process that will get you there.   Three months after my book was released, I finally got a distributor to carry my book.  IT TOOK THREE MONTHS!  Would you have given up at 3 weeks?  3 months?  6 months?  Extraordinary results is going to require an extraordinary effort, and that effort is repeated FOCUSED action toward a specified goal.  For this particular goal, the FIRST STEP was simply getting a booktrade distributor to carry my book.

Positive thinking had nothing to do with it.

So I leave you with this … Your Fastlane business should always have a “The Sky’s The Limit” potential, but you must be willing to start on the ground. So when someone sees my book on the shelf at the local bookstore, they will immediately discount and overlook the process that took to get it there.  For them, the existence of that book and all of its neighbors on the shelf, was luck.  Or happenstance.  Or “being in the right place at the right time.”

They will never understand that overnight success can take months, if not years.

~ MJ

Hooray it’s the New Year and a great time of year to grab your front-row seat to the annual ritual dance of predictable failure.

I’m talking about New Year’s Resolutions.

If you’re one of the few people who actually WANT your New Year’s Resolutions to produce real, life-altering change, I give you these 7 sure-fire strategies designed to make sure your resolutions actually produce a CHANGE—not a temporary, “feel-good” moment that lasts 9 days.

Strategy #1:
Don’t Make New Year’s Resolutions!

This afternoon I went to a jammed-packed gym filled with new faces, an annual migration of New Year’s Resolutioners who invade, crowd, and suck-up the resources at my gym… for about, oh, 3 weeks.

Of course let’s call the new faces for what they are—impending failures—the “action-fakers” who make resolutions once a year, and then fail at them because they fail at understanding the only thing that produces real change—a clearly defined process engineered by a change in beliefs which change daily choices.

I don’t have any “New Year’s Resolutions”.

Most successful people I know don’t either.

Want to know why?

Because successful people make resolutions EVERY SINGLE DAY.   If your mindset toward goal-setting is to make them once a year, guess what?

You’re guaranteed to fail.

For successful people, New Year’s Resolutions, if they are made, are simply another goal, or another milepost, along the journey. To truly succeed at creating and achieving your dream, you have to resolve to make resolutions daily, if not, weekly.

If you think the like the masses and make resolutions/goals once per year, you’re going to get results typical of the masses—mediocrity.

Strategy #2:
Understand that Real Change Is A Process, Not an Event.

For most New Years Resolutioners, the act of making a resolution is an event designed for one purpose:  To give the Resolutioner a temporary feel good moment that they are “doing something” or in guruspeak, “taking action”.

Unfortunately, the Resolutioner fails to understand that long-lasting, real change doesn’t happen overnight with one decision, it must happen daily, weekly, and monthly.   Repeated action forged by a change in beliefs is what creates habits and habits create change.

This is what I call “process”.

For example, the next time you hit the grocery store, examine the conveyor belt of the shopper in front of you — the conveyor belt uncovers a powerful concept — the process of someone’s daily, dietary decision making.  If that conveyor belt contains soda, ice cream, chips, dips, and any other fat-laddened garbage, does it matter what that that person has a New Year Resolution to lose weight?

Nope!

Their “process”, or their daily dietary choices are revealed on the conveyor belt. (A conveyor belt full of food will take days, if not weeks, to eat.)  In this case, the Resolutioner chose the feel-good event of declaring “I’m gonna lose weight” over the only thing that can induce change: The process (“I’m changing my daily diet” ).

With any goal you have, its achievement will be made possible by understanding WHERE THE WAR IS WON, and that war is fought and battled in the trenches of daily decision making, or process.  In our example, that battle starts not at the refrigerator or at the gym, but at the grocery store.

Strategy #3:
Make Your Resolution Specific, Measurable, and Timed

The Fastlane strategy is based on mathematics and so should your goals. In other words, you must attach a number to your goal so it can be specific and measured.

“Make more money” is an action-faking goal that is designed to make you feel good. “Make $10K a month by December” is designed to get you to do it.

“Lose weight” is an action-faking goal designed to make you feel good. “Lose 25 pounds before August 1st” is designed to get you to do it.

You’d think this was goal-setting 101 but it isn’t.  Again, at my gym, gym goers are encouraged to post their goals on the wall and what do I see?  Immeasurable, non-specific, untimed goals that do nothing but pave the road to failure.

Lose weight!  Get Healthy! Get ripped!  Get stronger!

Puhleeze.

If you’re making goals to temporarily assuage your feelings of “taking action” please spare yourself the self-indulgence.

Strategy #4:
Breakdown the Goal Into It’s Smallest Part

If you have a big goal, looking at the goal in its entirety will overwhelm you and short-circuit your process.  Again, process (daily decision and actions) are the key to producing real results.  If you gotta climb a mountain, looking at the top will easily discourage you.

Don’t do it!

In order to accomplish your goal, break the goal down into it’s VERY SMALLEST part – and yes, I MEAN THE SMALLEST!

For example, take the simple act of taking a crap. (Sorry for being crude but I wanted to think of something we do daily and routinely.)

If this was a goal, it would be broken down into the following sub-goals.

Enter bathroom.  Lower toilet lid.  Unbuckle pants.  Drop pants.   Sit.  Expunge.  Wipe.  Flush.  Wash Hands.  Exit.

Accomplishing a big goal isn’t much different than some of the the routine things we do everyday.  Breakdown your big goals into the smallest of subgoals, and when each subgoal is accomplished, MARK IT OFF!

See yourself getting closer to the accomplishment.

If your goal is to lose 25 pounds, target 1 pound first!

If your goal is to sell 10,000 books, target 10 books first!

If your goal is to earn $10,000/mo, target $100/mo first!

You can’t run a 26 mile marathon by focusing on the 26th mile.  You have to get through mile marker #1 before you can move beyond mile marker #2, #3, and so forth.

Strategy #5:
Reward Yourself Each Step of the Way!

When I hit a major net worth goal I bought my first Lamborghini.  It was my reward.

In order to hit your goals, you need to reward yourself each step of the way and pat yourself on the back.

If your goal is $10K/mo, celebrate the $100/mo mark.  The $1000/mo mark.  Each incremental subgoal should have a point of celebration — something that you will love, but won’t sidetrack your progress.

Smoke a cigar.

Buy an expensive outfit you’d never normally purchase.

Take a weekend vacation.

Indulge in that Bellagio facial at the resort spa.

Do something to say to yourself “Good job!  Now lets get to the next step!”

Strategy #6:
Log it (Write it Down) and Keep It In Front of You!

My daily and weekly tasks to do (which come from goals) are updated daily, almost hourly.

For the task of logging my goals and thinks to do, I use Wunderlist which is on both my iPad and on my computer.  When I change any task, it automatically syncs to my iPad and vice versa.  My list goes with me EVERYWHERE I go.  Notice: This is not a once-a-year occurrence—it is happening daily!

At home, my Wunderlist always sits on the left side monitor, constantly in my face reminding me of what needs to be done. (See pic)

Additionally,  I also use this tool to catalog ideas and thoughts that I might forget. (I have a terrible memory!)

Writing goals on paper and tossing that piece of paper in a drawer on your desk?  Action-fake.

Keep those goals always in foresight.

Strategy #7:
Put the “End Goal” In Front Of You.

The sibling strategy to #6 is #7:  Keep your END GOAL front-and-center on your workspace!

I own a model Lamborghini that sits in my office. (Photo left: Model Lambo on my real Lambo) My screensaver, still to this day, is a Murci Roadster and yet not nearly 50 feet away it sits in my garage.  I keep my “end goals”, or my WHY, in front me so I can have daily reminders about what I’m targeting.

Your WHY is why are you working so hard?  WHAT do you want?  Why is it important for you to “go Fastlane?”

For some, it might be a gaudy car or a small little beach house, while for others it might be a picture of your kids or your ailing mother.  Whatever your WHY, keep in front of you, and stay reminded.

Keep END GOALS and GOALS in your face!

Conclusion

If you want to accomplish your goals, my last piece of advice is to respect the process and COMMIT to that process by taking actions that reflect commitment to that process.  Joining a gym and buying 2 weeks of healthy food shows commitment to process, not the event.

Unfortunately, when it comes to goal setting and New Years Resolutions, people COMMIT to the wrong thing — they commit to the EVENT which precedes action-faking failure. The “event” is the feel good moment that the gurus tell us to do: “take action”.  Ultimately, very few solitary actions have the power to induce change.

If you what to change your life, you have to change your choices—not once, but every hour, every day, and every week.

Are there specific strategies that help you accomplish goals?  Please share!  And happy 2012!

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I get it.

Your passion can get a product to market.

Your passion can get you to conquer failure.

Your passion can keep you motivated and up-and-early in the morning.

However when it’s all said and done, passion cannot manufacture a demand for something where none exists: Only a clearly defined need, desire, want, or solution does.

Are you in a rut?

A rut is a routine of normalcy that restricts your personal growth.

If you’re in a rut, you’re not LIVING, you’re DYING.

Has life become just one boring old routine, repeated day after day?

Unfortunately, Slowlane life is defined by rutful behavior; wake up, shower, get dressed, fight traffic, work at the office for 8 hours, come home, watch 2 hours of American Idol and Law and Order, go to sleep, then repeat … and repeat, for oh, 40 years.   Fastlaners can suffer the same trap with different circumstances.

If you feel your life has fallen into a rut, here are some things you can do in the next 12 days to escape, and forever change the trajectory of your life.

You didn’t sign up for a life existence of mediocrity; it’s time to escape your rut!

1) Quit the Thing that is Killing You.

Smoking cigarettes.  Dealing weed.  Drunk driving.  That freaking job and the required weekly TPS reports. That midnight binge of custard doughnuts chased down by a can of Coke.

You know exactly what you’re doing that is killing you, and yet, you keep doing it.  Wealth is about health and once you destroy that, no amount of money, fulfillment, or positive thinking will change it.

Protect your health and you protect your wealth, now and in the future.

2) Register to Join a Team or a League

Join a team of strangers: a co-ed softball team, a bowling league, or the tennis club.  Get out and meet people OUTSIDE your circle and while doing so, you benefit by virtue of better health through physical activity.  You can never stop introducing new people into your social circle. People are like roads; good people open new roads of opportunity while the bad ones open roads of distress.

While throwing strikes or swinging volleys, you might meet your next business partner, your next best friend, or your next ex-wife (*smirk*).  (Resources: Craigslist, Sportsvite.com)

3) Register to Take a Class

Expand your horizons and take a class at your local community college.  Cooking.  Photoshop 1.0.  Creative writing.  Pick something that interests you.  Double points if that interest can make you money or translate into a business asset.  Whatever it is, get out and learn something new by investing in yourself.

Additionally, re-read #2 — you might meet a classmate that opens a new road for you; your future spouse, best friend, or business partner.

4) Cancel the damn cable TV

Face it.  If you watch hours and hours of television you’re probably a loser who needs TV because your own life sucks.  Since your life sucks, Snookie, American Idol finalist #3, and Dexter represent an interesting diversion from your uninteresting life.

Cancel the TV and make your own life something OTHER PEOPLE would want to watch.

I don’t watch a lot of TV because I’ve created a life worth living, one that doesn’t need a fairytale escape that airs every Wednesday at 8pm.  Create your own life worth living and stop watching others live theirs.  Time is your most precious asset and rest assured, on your deathbed your dying regret won’t be “I wish I watched more TV” — it will be something you didn’t do, compliments to the 9 years you spent glued to the tube.

5) Read A “Red-Pill” Book

After dumping the TV, you’re going to free up a lot of time.  Great.  Next, find a “red-pill” book to read.

Every week I receive reader raves for my book, The Millionaire Fastlane, “YOUR BOOK CHANGED MY LIFE!”

Yes, a book can change your life and cause you to change your belief system, causing you to act and see differently. From the moment the book is read, it changes your life forever because you see in a new shade of color.  Think THE RED PILL from the Matrix; you can take the blue pill and go on your merry-way, or take the red-pill and never be the same again.  Some books have the power to do this and I like to think that my book is just one of those.  Go find your “red pill” book!

6) Do Something That Frightens You

Speak in front of a group.  Jump off that cliff.  Ask out that hot chick at the gym.

Success is found outside of your comfort zone.

If you aren’t willing to expand your horizons and get uncomfortable, you aren’t willing to grow into the person you need to become.  Years ago I was fearful of public speaking; now, I am not.  I conquered the fear by action, and realized that the fear itself was greater than the reality.  Once you feel the accomplishment of conquering the fear, it becomes less of an obstacle to your success.

7) Volunteer For Those Less Fortunate

Help someone who truly needs it.  The old folks home.  The orphanage.  Step outside of your tiny world and see how lucky you and I have it.  In other words, learn to be unselfish as it is one of the most important Fastlane concepts you can learn.  Recognizing the needs of others is a conduit into providing value.

Then learn gratitude.

Your life ain’t so bad.  Sure, that flat tire on the freeway caused you to walk 2 miles, but do you know how many people can’t walk at all? And would love to walk 2 miles?  Do you know how many people who don’t have a car?  Who don’t have a job to pay for the car?  Gratitude is a forefather to happiness.  Volunteer and you will learn selflessness and gratitude, two great character traits that will serve you for a lifetime.

8) Live Your Dream for a Moment

Whatever your dream, try to live it for a moment.  Go test drive that dream car of yours.  Take a ride on that stallion you’ve always wanted.  Drive through that multimillion dollar neighborhood.  Whatever dream you envision, try to make it real for a moment, a minute, or an hour. FEEL IT.

I remember when I saw my first Lamborghini years ago; it turned a fantasy into a tangible reality that I wanted for myself, and it forever changed my life.

9) Change Your Diet TODAY

The first step to better health, and wealth, is your diet.  Change it today and see how you feel.  Dump the Ben-n-Jerrys, the Coke, and the McDonald’s Super-Size Combo–all the garbage that is slowing you down and making you look and feel like shit.  If you feel better (and look better) you will be better motivated to accomplish your goals.  You will be happy.  Note to ACTION FAKERS, I said change your diet — NOT go on a diet.  One is temporary.  The other is a lifestyle.

10) Join A Gym

Reread #9.  If you feel and look better, you will accomplish more.  Reread #4.   It will expand your social circle and possibly open a new road.

11) Take That Big Risk You’ve Been Putting Off

You know what it is.

It whispers in your ear at night.

It screams at you during the day at work.

You think about it all day …  you know, that nagging RISK you want to take, but just can’t convince yourself to do it.  Maybe you want to quit your job and join the Peace Corps.  Maybe it’s a miserable marriage and you want to file for divorce.  Maybe it’s a relocation across the country.  Whatever it is, DECIDE to do it and then PLAN for it’s execution.  You don’t have to QUIT today, but COMMIT today.  And then ACTION TAKE, not ACTION FAKE.

12) Meditate on Your Deathbed

Fast forward to your deathbed and meditate in that moment. What regrets will you have ? 

“Oooh I wish I would have worked longer?” or ” I wish I would have watched more TV?”

Months ago I wrote a blog post entitled “Letters to Your Younger Self” and it asked OLD YOU to write a letter to YOUNG YOU.  What would you say?  If you had 1 week left to live, what regrets would you have?  Expose those regrets and tackle them TODAY while you are young and transform those regrets into memories.

What simple things can you DECIDE to do NOW that can change your life forever?

It is that time of a year again when you need to ask, are you an ACTION TAKER, or an ACTION FAKER?

Pay attention to your last year’s New Year’s Resolutions — if you failed them, you might be an ACTION FAKER!

Enjoy!

Follow your passion?

Do what you love?

Sound familiar?  It should.  It’s guru speak and the clones love it.   While this kind of “feel good” stuff sells books, the market is indifferent.

Next time your rent or mortgage is due, try paying it with PASSION.

Passion doesn’t pay the bills!

For PASSION to work, it has to translate into money. To make the translation, you need to do the one thing that most people ignore.

PS: The interview I did which this vid mentions is TheSurvivalPodcast.com – check it out, great site!

Every time I hear a person complain that there are no opportunities, or no “ideas” to pursue, I want to pull out my hair.

Until we live in a perfect world, there will always be opportunities.

Don’t listen to the naysayers who say “Oh, that’s being done … why bother?”

Fastlane opportunities drive opportunities where there are needs, wants, and opportunities for “better”.

Just because beer exists, doesn’t mean no one will want your beer.

If your beer tastes good and people want it, it will sell.

If your beer sucks and no one wants it, it won’t sell — and doing what you love, living your passion, thinking positively, blah blah won’t change that fact.