Knowledge For Men

Kenneth Shamrock (born Kenneth Wayne Kilpatrick; February 11, 1964) is an American mixed martial artist, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer, and retired professional wrestler. He emerged as one of the biggest stars in the history of mixed martial arts, headlining over 15 main events and co-main events in the UFC and Pride Fighting Championships during the course of his career and set numerous pay-per-view records.

Shamrock is widely considered to be a legendary figure and icon in the sport of mixed martial arts. Shamrock was named The World's Most Dangerous Man by ABC News in a special entitled "The World's Most Dangerous Things" in the early part of his UFC career, a moniker which has stuck as his nickname.

"You have no idea what I'm willing to do to get where I'm going."

1. Be Willing to Do Whatever it Takes

If you want to truly succeed in the most competitive environments then you must cultivate a "Whatever it Takes" mentality.

This doesn't mean that you are willing to engage in unethical or immoral activities, simply that you are willing to sacrifice, to hustle, and to grind your way through any challenge and any adversity.

For those of you who are content to be in second place (and there's nothing wrong with that), doing whatever it takes isn't truly necessary.

You can skate by, cut corners, take shortcuts, and still arrive at your destination.

But if you want to be the best, the top 1%, a leader, mover, and shaker in your industry, then you must show up early, stay late, and outwork all of your competition.

The price of admission is high, but the rewards are worth it.

2. You Have to Choose Yourself

In business and in life, most people wait to be called on.

Like a child being called on by the teacher instead of raising their hand, most people wait until life presents them with an opportunity or opens a door.

If you want to play the game of life in the top echelon of society, then you need to find opportunities and kick the doors down yourself.

Or as previous podcast guest James Altucher puts it, you must Choose Yourself.

No one is going to give you the freedom, the career, or the lifestyle that you desire.

If you are a man, then do what needs to be done and take it for yourself.

Take massive action, take huge initiative and do the work.

Because if you don't… Someone else will.

3. If You Don't Seize the Moment Someone Else Will

Life is competition.

Anyone who has even the most basic understanding of our species' history and the story of evolution knows this.

Although we live in a world filled with abundance and a plethora of resources, we also live in a world filled with fierce competition.

And the most dangerous thing that you can do in your life, relationship, or career is to hesitate and allow someone else to seize your moment.

Think about how many times you saw that pretty girl, had that business idea or wanted to make that change but you didn't. You hesitated, you waited, and you procrastinated.

But someone else didn't.

Someone else went up and introduced himself, someone else set up their LLC and took action on their idea, someone else made the change, reaped the rewards and enjoyed the spoils of their labor… But you didn't.

In each of our lives, we are presented with a small handful of pivotal moments where we must decide whether we will take action or not.

It is in these moments that your destiny is shaped.

Don't allow someone else to shape it for you.

Take action, seize the moment, and live the life you've always dreamed of.

4. Find Your "Person"

If you continue down your current trajectory of personal and professional development, sometime in the future, you will arrive at a place in your life where you are surrounded by "Yes Men."

Your success and reputation will be so great that the people in your social circle will rarely tell you the truth and will, instead, try to tell you what they think you want to hear.

This is one of the most dangerous places any man can be.

You must find someone, whether a friend, relative, or coach who will tell you the truth all the time with compassion.

You need someone in your life who will tell you when you are messing up, when you are on the right track, and when you need to shut up and get things done.

Find your "Person" who will always be honest with you and you will find that your life will be a lot smoother and easier than it will when you operate on the opinions of impressed "friends".

5. Slow Down and Be Patient

Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

It seems like our instant gratification society has lost touch with the realities of life and, the simple truth is that life is meant to be lived and experienced.

Don't be so eager to achieve great things that you forget to live your life and enjoy the journey.

Be patient and allow success to happen in its own time and its own way.

Russell Whitney is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and a recognized worldwide leader in the business, real estate investment, and financial training fields.

Russell prospered in both business and real estate and eventually used his knowledge and experience to help others do the same. Over the past 15 years, he has traveled the world speaking to audiences as large as 10,000, at one time to a fully packed arena.

He has spoken alongside luminaries like Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki, Anthony Robbins, and George Foreman, always spreading his message of how to take immediate action to achieve financial goals and dreams by following his easy-to-follow, step-by-step process.

"Rock bottom is the foundation that you can build upon"

"If you truly want something you will find a way, if you don't you will find an excuse."

1. Fear of the Unknown Disappears when you Commit to Massive Self Education

The one thing that holds most people back from achieving the life that they want is not laziness, procrastination, or ignorance.

It's fear of the unknown.

When you don't know what will happen next, it's easy to become complacent and get trapped in mediocrity.

You think to yourself "Things aren't that bad right now. If I quit my job, leave this relationship, or move to a new city, everything could go horribly wrong!"

And these thought patterns keep you stuck in your current situation and prevent you from ever achieving your dreams.

So what's the solution?

Massive self-education through books, courses, and mentors.

Other people have been where you are right now, taken massive action, and experienced the joy and pain inherent in the goals you are pursuing.

Instead of trying to do it all on your own, learn from others.

By educating yourself on your goal you will know what obstacles to expect, how to overcome the challenges you will experience, and how to capitalize on opportunities that come your way.

When you educate yourself, fear disappears.

2. Sales is the Key to All Financial Success

If you want to succeed at business and in life, then you must become a master of sales.

There's no way around it.

Regardless of what you do to make money or what your goals are in life, sales is the key to unlocking everything that you want.

Want to make millions of dollars with real estate? Then you must learn to sell the leads, prospects, and clients on why they should work with and buy from you.

Want to have a beautiful spouse and an amazing family? Then you must go out and sell yourself to your ideal partner and convince them that they should be with you and not the millions of other men out there.

Want to lose weight, gain muscle, and get in the best shape of your life? Then you must go out there and sell yourself on why it's a 'must' for you to go to the gym and eat clean every day.

Sales is the key to everything.

The sooner you can master it the sooner you can have the life that you want.

3. Use Fear of Failure as your Greatest Motivation

After the 2008 market collapse, Russel lost everything.

He went bankrupt, became homeless, severed ties with his family and friends, and developed a massive drug problem.

One night as he was contemplating suicide, he suffered from a drug-induced schizophrenic episode and flushed every narcotic that he had down a toilet.

He committed to himself that he was going to get sober and rebuild his life and in a little under 3 years, he went from living on the streets to reaching multi-millionaire status.

He told me that the reason he is so "Disciplined" with his finances and lifestyle today is not willpower or a commitment to his future, but rather a crippling fear of going back to rock bottom.

In our modern society, we often treat fear as a negative thing.

In some cases (as with fear of the unknown) fear can cripple us and prevent us from taking action.

But in other cases, fear can be our most powerful ally in driving ourselves towards the life that we want.

Learn to harness your fear and you'll be amazed at the results that you can achieve.

4. The Key to Success is Humility and Drive

In our interview, Russel shared a story about one of his students who was a young 20-something who went from a college dropout to multi-millionaire with online business in only a matter of months.

When I asked him what separated his student from the other people he'd mentored Russel's answer was simple.

"He's willing to listen to people who are smarter than he is and he has a tremendous hustle and drive."

Humility and drive.

If you want to achieve your biggest goals, it will not be easy.

But it is simple. If you are willing to learn from people who are smarter than you, be humble about your abilities, and obsessed with your craft, you will succeed.

Period.

It may take months, years, or even decades, but if you are willing to be humble and put forth a tremendous effort, nothing can stand in the way of achieving success.

5. As Soon as You Make Money Throw it Away (Invest)

I'm about to give you the secret to financial abundance and freedom for the rest of your life.

Are you ready? Here it is…

Stay broke and invest every extra dollar you make.

It's that simple.

If you are willing to set a reasonable budget for yourself so that you can enjoy your lifestyle and you are willing to increase your income and invest every single dollar into income producing assets, you will become a millionaire over the course of your life.

It doesn't matter how much money you make or how many bills you have. If you can set a budget, increase your income to exceed your budget, and invest the surplus, you will get rich.

Olaniyi "Niyi" Sobomehin is a former American football fullback. He played college football at Portland State. He was signed by the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2008.

After being cut from the NFL due to an injury, Olaniyi decided to begin coaching and from there, in addition to being a full-time firefighter, he has built a coaching company imnotyou.com to help young athletes be successful at an elite level. You can connect with him and learn more here, imnotyou.com

"People wish to be settled but only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

1. You Must Have a Vision

Before you can achieve any goal, you must first set that goal.

Before you can arrive at a destination, you must know what destination you wish to arrive at.

Before you can live the life of your dreams, you must have a vision for what that life looks like.

So many men today walk around aimlessly, without any real vision or purpose to their lives. Maybe they have some arbitrary goals that they set because society told them to, but they lack a visceral purpose and vision that pushes them forward in life.

If you hope to live a great life, a life of meaning, a legendary life, then you must start with your vision.

Who do you want to be? What do you want to achieve? How do you want to show up every day? How many lives do you want to impact?

Until you know the answers to these questions, you cannot achieve the life you were born to achieve.

2. Reverse Engineer Your Vision and Treat Failures as Opportunities

Once you have a vision, you have just gotten started.

With your vision clearly written down, you must reverse engineer the steps that are required to achieve that vision until you have a long list of small steps that will help you achieve your goals in the coming years.

Once you know what steps you need to take and when you need to take them (this will take you a long time to figure out), you must take daily massive action and learn from everything you do.

You must remember that failure doesn't mean you're out of the game, it means you have a chance to learn.

For example, if you sit down to work and have a completely unproductive day, instead of viewing this as a failure, ask yourself "What did I learn?"

Maybe you learned that your phone needs to be on airplane mode throughout the workday. Maybe you learned that you need to have your days planned before you begin them. Or maybe you learned that you just need to get some extra sleep because you're too damn exhausted to work.

Whatever you learn, write it down, tweak your approach, and continually learn from the process until you achieve your goal.

3. Stay Hungry and Focus on Growth

One of the biggest traps into which many men fall is the trap of success and complacency.

You see, many of us start with relatively small visions that we achieve early on in life.

Maybe you've sold your business, finally earned the 6-figure salary, or married the woman of your dreams. That's great, but you're not even close to finished.

In fact, you're just getting started.

Life is all about expansion, it's about growth, it's about constantly striving to be, do, and achieve more.

Instead of resting on your laurels, you must stay hungry.

Even when you are enjoying the fruits of your hard work, you must set your sights on the next milestone, the next goal, and the next vision.

Because if you don't, if you settle in your current circumstances, you will eventually atrophy and die, leaving this world with so much potential left on the table.

No matter how successful you are or how much success you achieve, you must remember the famous words of Steve Jobs and "Stay hungry, stay foolish".

4. Commit Yourself to Discipline Every Single Day

Most of you have probably heard our interview with Jocko Willink where he echoes his infamous statement that "Discipline Equals Freedom".

And most of you treat this statement as a convenient war cry instead of an ethos by which you live your life.

Most men commit to discipline sporadically and as a result, they make great achievements and breakthroughs sporadically as well.

They are disciplined when they need to be but they aren't disciplined when they should be.

And this reality is clearly reflected in their success and failures.

If you want to be one of the greats, if you want to be a legend, if you want to be the kind of person who people remember, then you must be willing to discipline yourself daily.

You must make a commitment to discipline every day that you wake up, you must stand strong in your values, and take massive action towards your goals even when you don't need to.

This is the only way to achieve lasting success and it's the only way that you will leave a dent in this universe.

5. Surround Yourself with the Right People

When you have created a vision, reverse engineered that vision, committed yourself to discipline, and begin learning from your failures, there is only one final step towards ultimate achievement.

Your network.

Who you surround yourself with is one of the single most important factors in anyone's journey.

If your five closest friends are millionaires, high achievers, and grounded men, then you will be the sixth.

Conversely, if your five closest friends are slobs, party animals, and lost boys then you will become the sixth.

You are the average of your five closest friends so pay careful attention to the company that you keep… It can literally make or break your success.

Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter and the author of Smarter Faster Better, about the science of productivity and The Power of Habit, about the science of habit formation in our lives, companies, and societies. You can connect with him and learn more at charlesduhigg.com/.

"Think more deeply about what's going on so that I can determine how I should respond?"

1. Ask Yourself "What Do I Really Want Out of This?"

One of the greatest tragedies of modern society is that most people are vigorously pursuing goals that aren't congruent with who they are and what they really want.

Society, our friends, and our families all encourage us to earn more money, pack on more muscle, get married (or not), buy a house, and do what "good" little boys do.

Unfortunately, most people never actually take the time to ask themselves what they really want.

They never set aside the time to think purposefully about their life, their vision, and their goals.

As a result, more and more people arrive at their deathbeds wishing that they could live their lives over again in a different way.

I want to encourage you to take a step back and ask yourself "What do I really want from this?"

In every situation, whether it's in the bedroom, the boardroom, or the gym, set aside the time to think deeply about what you really want and how you can attain it.

2. Your Habits are Predicated on Queues, Actions, and Rewards

While the old saying, "Knowing is half the battle" might be a little bit hyperbolic, it's origins are found in reality.

If you don't truly understand a system, process, or job, you will never be able to accomplish it successfully and nowhere is this truer than in the realm of productivity, habits, and performance.

Most people simply assume that they are lazy or a procrastinator or just plain unlucky.

But the reality is that most people have never been taught how to properly build the habits of success into their lives.

Luckily, building a habit… Any habit is very simple (notice I did not say easy).

Habits can be broken into three parts: The trigger, the action, and the reward.

If you've ever been addicted to cigarettes then I have no doubt that you are uncomfortably familiar with this process.

You see a cigarette or experience stress (the trigger), you pull out a smoke and light it up (the action/habit), and then you experience a buzz from the nicotine and a sense of relaxation (the reward).

But the same pattern can be found in positive habits.

For example, you might see your running shoes and gym clothes (the trigger), decide to go workout (the action), and then experience a rush of endorphins and endocannabinoids that give you a feeling of elation and euphoria (the reward).

Every habit can be broken down into these three simple steps and when you understand this framework you will be able to manipulate your actions and outputs at will.

Pay close attention to the "Reward" element of this framework and you will be able to change your habits quicker and easier than you ever believed possible.

3. The Small Daily Decisions Matter

It doesn't matter what you had for lunch today, if you went to the gym or not, how many drinks you had, or how much you slept.

But what does matter is what you consistently have for lunch, how often you go to the gym, how frequently you drink, and how serious you are about the quality of your sleep.

For most people, there is no one action that will make or break their life and success.

Instead, their lives are the direct result of thousands of tiny actions and decisions made overtime.

When you realize this, you will begin to see the small decisions in a different light.

Because even though one action might not make a difference today, when that action is repeated and compounded over years and decades, it will literally determine the quality and capacity of your life.

4. Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals

With the new year right around the corner, many of you are undoubtedly setting New Year's resolutions.

Although I think resolutions are a terrible idea (which I will be discussing in an upcoming article), if you are going to set resolutions, Charles shared a few simple tips to help you actually stick to them this year.

For starters, you want to set two major goals, a stretch goal and an easy goal.

The stretch goal should scare the crap out of you and be something that you aren't 100% certain you can achieve.

It shouldn't be unrealistic, just difficult.

Your second major goal should be an important habit or result that you know you can achieve if you are simply willing to put in the work.

Once you have your goals, you are going to break them down using the SMART formula.

• Specific: What do I want to achieve? Who is required to achieve it? What resources will I need?
• Measurable: How much? How many? How will I know my goal is achieved?
• Achievable: How realistic is this goal based on my current restraints?
• Relevant: Is this goal worthwhile? Is the timing right? Is it applicable in my current environment?
• Time Bound: When will my goal be achieved? What benchmarks and checkpoints should I set for myself?

When you break down a goal in this manner, you clear all of the clutter from your mind and you're left with nothing but clear, actionable steps that will help you get from where you are to where you want to be.

5. Assume That You Will Achieve Success

One of the biggest roadblocks on your path to achieving your goals are your own limiting beliefs and b.s. internal stories.

But I'll let you in on a little secret.

You are already doing better than you think you are and you're much more likely to achieve success than you probably believe.

So why not act in a way that is reflective of this reality?

Assume that you will be successful at every endeavor you pursue.

Assume that if you are willing to stick it out and persevere, you will achieve your goals and dreams.

Act as if you are already successful, put in the work, and you will achieve the goals you've set for yourself.

Dan Millman is a former world champion athlete, university coach, martial arts instructor, and college professor.

After an intensive, twenty-year spiritual quest, Dan's teaching found its form as the Peaceful Warrior's Way, expressed fully in his books and lectures. His work continues to evolve over time, to meet the needs of a changing world.

Dan's seventeen books, including Way of the Peaceful Warrior, have inspired and informed millions of readers in 29 languages worldwide. The feature film, "Peaceful Warrior," starring Nick Nolte, was adapted from Dan's first book, based upon incidents from his life.

Much of Dan's time is devoted to writing and speaking. His keynotes, seminars, and workshops span the generations to influence men and women from all walks of life, including leaders in the fields of health, psychology, education, business, politics, sports, entertainment, and the arts.

Dan and his wife Joy live in Brooklyn, NY. They have three grown daughters and four grandchildren. You can connect with him and learn more at peacefulwarrior.com

"Success is making progress towards a meaningful goal"

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

1. Seek Excellence Not Success

One of the most common mistakes that people make in their pursuit of happiness is that they seek success instead of seeking excellence.

Let me break down what this means…

Most people, especially the kinds of people who listen to this podcast and read this blog, are future and goal oriented.

We are laser-focused on the attainment of something, on the accomplishment of something sometime in the distant future.

But what we often forget is that these accomplishments for which we are striving are made up of individual pieces.

For example, no one can "Build a Business".

A business is built by doing hundreds, maybe even thousands of small things well.

You don't "Build" your dream body by doing one thing once. You build your dream body by doing thousands upon thousands of reps with perfect form.

And that is where your focus should be.

Yes, you must have compelling goals that push you forward and encourage you to perform at your best.

But you must always remember that every worthy goal is comprised of thousands and thousands of micro-actions that you must take in the present moment.

They are the product of committing to excellence in the present moment and maintaining that commitment year after year after year.

Focus on doing things with excellence and success will inevitably follow.

2. The Quality of Your Moments Becomes the Quality of Your Life

In the same way that many people mistakenly pursue success instead of pursuing excellence, many of us devote our lives to the pursuit of the "Good Life".

We hustle, grind, and sacrifice so that, one day, we can finally be happy and enjoy a high quality of life.

We give up the things that are most important for an uncertain future that may or may not bring joy and fulfillment into our lives.

And by doing this, we forget to live our lives as they are happening.

We fail to realize that the "Good Life" is nothing more than a life filled with "Good Moments".

If you want a good life, you must have good years. To have good years, you must have good months, weeks, and days.

And to have good days, you must have good moments.

You must learn to embrace where you are right now and enjoy the moment for all that it is.

Because the present moment is everything.

It's all that you have.

There is no future.

There is no past.

There is only now.

So live in the now.

Cultivate those small moments of joy, happiness, and excellence. If you do this, I promise you that you will look back on your life with a smile, knowing that you lived it well.

3. Trust the Process of Your Life Unfolding

This if the 400th interview that I've conducted on the Knowledge for Men podcast and, after almost 4 years of interviewing top achievers, thinkers, and performers, I've noticed an interesting pattern.

Success, happiness, and fulfillment almost always exist on the other side of pain.

Grant Cardone was struggling with a drug addiction, broke, and unemployed before he found his future in sales and real estate.

Ryan Blair was involved in the most dangerous L.A. gangs almost sentenced to a decade of incarceration before he fell in love with entrepreneurship.

Bedros Keulian was literally digging through dumpsters to find food before he created the 8-figure fitness empire that he now owns today.

Yet these men trusted the process (admittedy they may have done so unconsciously).

They were willing to take a leap of faith and trust the process of their life unfolding.

They were able to accept that, as Steve Jobs said, "You will never connect the dots looking forward, only looking backward. So you have to somehow trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future."

And you must do the same.

Trust the process of your life unfolding.

Live in the present moment.

Have faith in yourself and in the universe and realize that life is an adventure that is meant to be lived… Not avoided.

4. Anticipation is One of the Greatest Sources of Suffering

One of the most sinister and seemingly innocuous sources of suffering is anticipation.

Think about it like this…

Imagine that there is a co-worker whom you cannot stand. The kind of person who makes your skin crawl and your stomach turn into a knot.

Imagine that later today, you have a meeting and you know that this particular co-worker will be in attendance.

In anticipation of the event, you imagine all of the possible outcomes in your head, forcing yourself to live in an unpleasant and mentally exhausting reality that hasn't even happened yet!

You bring yourself into a state of dissatisfaction and discomfort because you are living in future pain even though the present moment is completely tranquil!

How differently could this scenario be if you simply allowed yourself to live in the moment.

To know that you will have to face your peer but… Not yet.

To give yourself permission to say "I am not in that situation in the present moment so I am going to live life now and cross that bridge when I get there."

5. We Are All Just Humans

At the end of the day, we are all human beings on this journey together.

We have different views, beliefs, personalities, and desires, but we are all people.

We all experience deep emotions, we all have dreams and desires, and we all have struggles to overcome.

Even the seemingly invincible characters like Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, or Bradd Pitt have problems.

We are all humans.

No one person is inherently better or worse than anyone else.

We are all in this race together.

So why can't we start acting like it?

Instead of judging others and blaming them for their shortcomings, seek to understand and empathize with their struggles.

Instead of acting superior to your fellow man, remember the times in which you acted and behaved in unscrupulous or unsatisfactory ways.

Instead of pretending that you are on this journey alone, remember that we are all in this together.

Man, woman, black, white, gay, straight, republican, democrat… We are all in this together.

The sooner we realize this, the sooner we will unlock our specie's true power.

Mastin Kipp is the #1 best-selling author of Daily Love: Growing into Grace and his latest book Claim Your Power and has been recognized by Oprah Winfrey on her Emmy-award winning show Super Soul Sunday as a "spiritual thinker for the next generation."

He is the founder of Functional Life Coaching (TM) and has appeared alongside Tony Robbins, Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Dr. Brene Brown and others as a part of Oprah's Super Soul 100, a collection of awakened leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity.

He leads sold-out seminars and retreats all over the world, and collectively two million people in over 100 countries have been influenced by Mastin's work. You can connect with him and learn more at mastinkipp.com.

"Unless you're in mortal danger, fear is a compass showing you where to go."

1. You Always Have a Choice Between What is Easy and What will Lead to Your Dreams

In every person's life, they will come to a hallway, perhaps many hallways where they will be presented with a simple choice.

Will they take the first door on the left, the door that leads to ease, comfort, and safety?

Or will they take the second door, the door on the right that exposes them to danger at every corner but allows them to live their lives fully and completely?

When you take the first door, you make the decision to play safe to avoid doing the uncomfortable things that will drive you towards your dreams, and eventually, you become so bitter and jealous of other's success that you begin to sabotage yourself and your goals.

When you take door number two, you take a bold step into uncertainty.

And it's terrifying.

But it's also worth it.

2. What's Really Going On?

If you have found yourself stuck in a rut, unable to break free of the habits and tendencies that have kept your life where it is today, then you need to take a step back and ask yourself, "What's really going on?"

Peel back the layers of the onion and look beneath the surface.

Maybe you are terrible at relationships and no matter how many beautiful women you bring into your life, they all seem to leave faster than they show up.

Are you really terrible at relationships or is there something in your past, some sort of unresolved trauma or experience that is causing you to subconsciously sabotage yourself?

Is there a deeper reason for the struggles that you are experiencing?

A common one that I see with many men is the problem of laziness and procrastination.

I know so many men who are powerful, excited and motivated about life, but when it comes time to actually go to work, they drag their feet and fail to accomplish even the most basic tasks.

Are they lazy?

Maybe.

But I think the real problem is that their subconscious is telling them that there is an incongruence.

Maybe they are working a job they aren't passionate about, maybe they are in a business they don't really love, or selling a product they don't truly believe in.

Whatever the case may be, you will never be able to fix your biggest problems until you understand the root of the problems themselves.

What's really going on?

3. Don't Just Use Your Pain… Transcend It

Your pain is a powerful motivating force, but it must be used for good.

I see so many men who are burnt out and struggling simply because they've spent the past decade of their lives fueled by pain.

Pain is often the spark that can start a fire in your life. But if you aren't careful, it can also be the fire that consumes and burns your life to the ground.

Therefore, we must learn to transcend our pain and trauma.

Use it to ignite the fire you need to make bold moves and step forward in life and then… Let it go.

Come to terms with your pain, let go of your suffering, and forgive whoever and whatever hurt you.

Pain is a powerful ally.

But it can be an even more powerful enemy.

4. Start with What You Have Where You Are

If you are broke, struggling, and depressed, then this is one of the most powerful pieces of advice that you will ever hear.

You cannot win the marathon that is life until you start running.

And the only way to start running this race is to start where you are with what you have.

You might be living in a 400 square foot apartment with no running water and $50,000 in debt.

Great. Start where you are with what you have.

You might be living a great life but you know that you can do better if you just knew how.

Great. Start where you are with what you have.

There is no better time to start moving towards your dreams than today.

No matter what you have or don't have. No matter what you lack or need.

Start where you are with what you have.

5. Your Purpose is Based on an Emotional State and Nothing Else

I often hear guys who will tell me that they are unsure of their purpose in life.

But what's funny to me is that no one seems to have agreed upon what purpose actually means.

In the same way that 30 different people can all believe in "God" but they all have wildly definitions of who/what "God" is, thousands of you reading this will all have different definitions of what purpose is and how you pursue it.

But here's the thing.

Purpose is extremely simple.

Your purpose is nothing more than an emotional state that matters to you and your ability to express and cultivate that emotional state.

Purpose is the feeling that you get when you are acting in a way that is congruent with what you want.

Purpose is the emotion that you feel when you are expressing yourself at the highest level.

Purpose is a fluid emotional state that can change and shift on a daily basis.

So stop worrying about finding your purpose and realize that it's your responsibility to cultivate your purpose.

Noah Kagan was #30 at Facebook, #4 at Mint.com, and is the Chief Sumo (founder) of SumoMe, a company which offers free tools to help grow website traffic. He has built 4 products that each generated 7-figures and become one of the leading marketing experts in the world

"The squeaky wheel gets the grease"

"You're not important and no one cares"

1. Just Do Things You Enjoy

As far as we know, we only have one life. We only have one opportunity to live, laugh, and love.

So why is it that so many of us waste our precious time doing shit that we don't like?

Why do we work jobs that we hate, stay in relationships that we don't enjoy, and force ourselves to spend time with people who suck?

It's absolute insanity.

Although there's no "One size fits all" approach to happiness or living the good life, everything starts by doing more of the things you enjoy and less of the things that you hate.

So start today.

Find a way to cut out activities that you don't enjoy and that don't serve the bigger picture and a way to add in more activities that light you up and put a smile on your face.

2. No One Gives a Sh*t About You

This sounds harsh, I know.

But if you think about things objectively, you will quickly realize that it's true.

Outside of your immediate family and maybe a handful of close friends, no one cares about you, no one.

People don't care whether you succeed or not, they don't care if you're happy, and they don't really care if you carry on living.

Although it sounds morbid, this is actually good news.

The fact that no one cares gives you permission to screw up, it gives you permission to fall on your face, to fail, to lose, and to try things that might not work because, at the end of the day, no one really gives a shit either way.

So stop worrying about other people and focus on yourself.

If you don't, you will live your life trying to make everyone else happy without ever taking a second to think about your own happiness and well being.

3. Learn to be Empathetic

Even though no one really cares about you, this doesn't mean that you should go through life constantly ignoring others, acting like a narcissist, and screwing people over to achieve your goals.

You must develop a certain level of empathy so that you can successfully maneuver through the world.

The people that you encounter in your everyday life have their own goals, their own struggles, and their own problems.

When you can learn to identify with them and consider things from their point of view, you will become a social powerhouse.

4. Define Success for Yourself

One of the biggest mistakes that anyone can make in their life is striving to achieve a version of success that isn't truly congruent with their deepest goals and desires.

Noah has made millions of dollars several times over but his lifestyle is pretty modest.

You won't see him posting on Instagram about his new McLaren or bragging about his new private jet.

He's content to live in a 700 square foot flat and drive his scooter downtown in search of the city's best tacos.

Because that is his version of success. He enjoys what he does and has a simple life.

For other people, however, this would be a living hell.

People like Gary Vaynerchuk need to be in constant motion to enjoy their life and feel fulfilled, they need the rush of the deal and the job in order to feel successful and fulfilled.

Neither path is wrong.

It's simply a matter of what works for you.

So I want to challenge you to take some time to think about what success really means to you. What do you really want? What would it take for you to be happy and fulfilled?

Once you have your answer, go do that thing, and ignore everyone else's opinions and ideas.

Because your definition of success is the only thing that matters.

5. Stop Complaining and Start Looking for a Solution

For the next 30 days, I want you to do something.

It sounds simple, but I promise it's not as easy as you might assume.

I want you to quit complaining.

That's it.

For the next 30 days, I want you to consciously quit complaining about anything in your life whether it's your job, your spouse, your kids, or just crappy weather.

Stop complaining and start looking for solutions.

If something bothers you, instead of bitching about it, find a way to change it.

It might sound simple, but I promise that it will change your life.

In today's podcast I'm tackling one of THE most infectious diseases affecting men today...Oneitis.

In other words, the belief that ONE specific woman is the ONLY woman who can complete you and make you happy.

I'll be destroying common myths, giving you powerful exercises to reframe your mindset, and giving you tactical action steps to overcome oneitis for good and build the dating life of your dreams.

Let's dive in.

Jon Acuff is the New York Times Bestselling author of six books including his most recent Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done.

For over 20 years he's helped some of the biggest brands in the world tell their story, including The Home Depot, Bose, Staples, and the Dave Ramsey Team. Most recently he's spoken to hundreds of thousands of people at conferences, colleges, companies and churches. Featured regularly on national media, Jon has been seen on CNN, Fox News, Good Day LA and several other key outlets.

In addition, Jon is also a big proponent of social media with blogs that have been read by 4 million people and almost 300,000 twitter followers. In 2010 he used his influence with his tribe to build two kindergartens in Vietnam. Jon lives with his wife Jenny and two daughters in Franklin, TN.

"Starting is fun, but the future belongs to finishers."

1. Starting is Fun But Success Belongs to Finishers

Do you remember the last time that you started a new workout program or online course?

Do you remember that warm fuzzy feeling you got in the pit of your stomach while you were starting a journey towards your goals?

Now let me ask you another question…

Do you remember the last time that you actually went through and completely finished a book, workout program, online course, or anything else of importance?

Most of you don't…

And this doesn't make you a bad person, it doesn't make you lazy, it makes you human.

You see, as people we are wired to start things.

Whether we are starting a new diet, a new business, a new book, or whatever else it is, we love starting.

It's fun, it's exciting, and it makes us feel important.

Finishing, on the other hand, sucks.

To finish something, you must endure small failures and setbacks, you must persevere even when you don't feel motivated, and you must keep pushing through the parts that don't feel particularly exciting or fun.

But success belongs to finishers.

No one became successful by starting something.

They became successful by following it through to the end and finishing.

When you realize this, when you truly internalize this principle, everything will change.

2. Perfectionism will Break You

Nothing will wreck your goals, limit your potential, and destroy your plans more than perfectionism.

Nothing.

Perfectionism is merely an alibi for inaction. It's an excuse to do nothing.

Whereas the non-perfectionist says "I know that I can't do xyz perfectly with my current resources, what can I do to move things forward anyways."

The perfectionist says "I know that I can't do xyz perfectly so why even bother doing it at all?"

When you operate from this framework, you are setting yourself up to fail.

No one succeeds when they have a commitment to perfection.

Because, quite simply, perfection cannot exist.

There will always be something that prevents you from achieving true perfection which means there will always be something that prevents you from finishing your goals, no matter what they are.

If you want to live a great life and have a lot of fun doing so, then I challenge you to eradicate the word "Perfect" from your vocabulary.

Focus on getting things done and finishing.

Because success belongs to the finishers.

3. Slow it Down and Cut it Back

Once you have committed to being a "Finisher" and not a perfectionist, it's easy to get overwhelmed.

You have all of these goals and big dreams that you want to achieve, but they just seem so daunting and scary.

Take a deep breath, relax, and realize that it's going to be ok.

Instead of stressing yourself out and killing yourself to achieve arbitrarily set goals that don't have any real significance in your life, slow things down and cut back.

Here's what I mean.

Let's say that your goal is to lose 15 lbs. in the next month.

While it's admirable that you want to lose weight, it's also a foolish goal.

You are simply trying to do too much too quickly.

Why do you need to lose so much weight in the next 30 days? What's so significant about the next month that you are willing to starve yourself to death in order to hit an arbitrary weight goal?

Instead, let's take the finisher's approach.

Cut the goal in half and double the timeline.

Now, instead of 15 lbs. in 30 days, it's 7 lbs. in 60 days.

That means you need to lose less than one pound a week!

That's doable right?

Some of you reading this might think, "No! I've gotta push hard, I've gotta go crazy and lose this weight"

And I get it, that's what you've been conditioned to think.

But let me ask you something…

If this approach works, then why haven't you lost the weight already?

4. Examine What Has Worked in the Past

Whenever you set out to achieve any new goal, start by looking at what has worked in the past.

For example, if you take stock of your life and realize that you have mastered your physical health but you're struggling to get a grip on your finances, simply look at the habits and routines that helped to become physically fit and apply them to your life so that you can become financially fit.

When you examine the habits that helped you become healthy, you might realize that the first step you took was to clear out your pantry of all junk food, thereby eliminating 90% of the temptation you felt.

This can be applied to your finances.

Call your bank and setup an automatic savings transfer that will draft out of your account every time you get paid. The next time your paycheck hits your account, you will automatically have a small portion of your income going directly to your savings account. You don't realize it's gone, you can't touch the money that has been transferred, and you have no temptation to spend that money on things you don't need.

Success leaves clues.

If you have achieved success anywhere in life, you can achieve it everywhere in life if you are simply willing to look at what has worked, pick out the patterns, and apply them to all areas of your life.

5. Have Fun with the Process

At the end of the day, life is supposed to be fun.

It isn't supposed to be a rat race, it isn't supposed to be a drag, it's supposed to be fun!

So start acting like it.

Enjoy the goals that you set, enjoy the things that you pursue, enjoy every moment that you can because life is precious and it's meant to be enjoyed.

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, The Happiness of Pursuit, Born for This, and The Art of Non-Conformity.

Chris travels the world and writes for a small army of remarkable people at ChrisGuillebeau.com, or you can listen to his daily podcast, Side Hustle School, at SideHustleSchool.com.

1. You Don't Have to Live the Way You Are Told

Go to school, get good grades, attend college, find a cushy job with nice benefits, buy a house, get married, have 2.5 kids, die.

That's the script that most of us have been told to follow.

We've been fed a steady diet of lies and misinformation that make us believe that there is only one way to approach life, that there's a select set of goals and ambitions that are acceptable and the rest are heresy.

Luckily for you and me… There's more to life than what we were told growing up.

Since the inception of the internet, it's easier now than it's ever been in human history to create a sustainable income doing something that you love.

It's easier than it's ever been before to shrug off the expectations and "should's" of society and to go about life in our own way.

You don't have to do what anyone else tells you to do.

If you want to go to college, get a job, get married, and buy a house in the hills, then great!

If you don't, if you want to drop out, travel the world, start an online business, and live the expat lifestyle, you can do that too.

You have the power to decide who you want to be and what you want to do.

You have the ability to decide for yourself what kind of life you want to live.

Make the most of it.

2. What One Man Can Do Another Man Can Do

In a world that glamorizes the end result without giving so much as a second thought to the process, it's easy to look at the successes of others and believe that their accomplishments are out of your reach.

But they were people just like you.

Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuk, and yes, Chris Guillebeau are all just normal people who have done extraordinary things.

There's nothing special about them, they didn't have any unique advantages that you don't have, they were just normal everyday guys who applied proven principles and tactics to achieve extraordinary results.

Whatever it is that you want to achieve in this life, it's possible, and the first step on your path to making it happen is to acknowledge that it's possible.

What one man can do, another man can do. If it's been done before it can be done again.

Always remember this and always keep your head up.

3. A Side Hustle is an Asset

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to building a side hustle is to think that a "Side Hustle" is the same thing as a part-time job.

There's nothing wrong with freelancing or working part-time, but at the end of the day, these endeavors all require the same thing… Your time.

No matter how highly paid you become, anything that directly requires your time to make money is a part time job, not a Side Hustle.

A side hustle is an asset, it's something that can make you money while you sleep, it's something that you can set and forget.

It's something that generates revenue without consuming your life.

4. Your Hustle Isn't that Big of a Deal

I know countless individuals who work jobs that they love.

They decide to build a side hustle, quite simply, because they want the extra cash.

After weeks of brainstorming and agonizing over potential paths they could take, they eventually collapse into a puddle of nerves and anxiety.

Not because the task ahead of them is so monumental, but because they have put their side hustle on a proverbial pedestal. They turned it into something that it wasn't.

A side hustle is nothing more than a fun project that you work on in your spare time to generate extra revenue.

That's it.

You don't have to be passionate about it as long as you enjoy it.

You don't have to make 6-figures with it (unless you want to).

You don't have to turn it into anything of significance.

It's just a way to make extra income doing things you like.

So don't worry about finding your "One Thing". Make a list of 10 different side hustles, try each one for 2-3 weeks and if you don't like it, throw it in the garbage and start the next one.

This is an experiment, treat it as such.

5. Just Get Started

No matter what goal you are pursuing, whether it's to travel the world, find your dream job, or simply start a side hustle to earn an extra $2,000 a month, the first step will always be the hardest.

You will always second guess yourself, over analyze, and eventually, give up if you don't take the first step and dive into the water head first.

Just get started.

As simple as it sounds, it's the key to about 90% of success.

Just get started, take the first step, write the first word, buy that domain, talk to that girl, do whatever it is that you need to do to move towards your dreams.

Get started today.

Because tomorrow you will wish you had started yesterday.