The Ride

[The Motorcyclist]

Second day of the week.

I've completed the Portfolio theory questions in the Bank. Need to finish the rest by tomorrow. 

To do : 

- Connect with a couple of prospects this week for sales conversations,

- Have a client meeting tomorrow.

- Calendar free for the rest of the week.

Current set of Confusions

- Current skill set not paying as highly as thought. Steve Pavlina's blog entry on building multiple skills sets was quite interesting. I need to look more into his public speaking journey.

- How to allocate more time to personal development and building skill sets from the current effort going into the business. Can't shut the business as it is bread and butter. 

Goals for the year

- 36 basketball pushups by the end of the year

- 24 pull ups by the end of the year

- 70% paleo diet (if affordable) in the next 3 months

- Need to clear 3 exams. 1 in April and 2 in October. 

- Develop public speaking skill set. Very fucking important. Need to start making some money from it towards the end of the year. (Refer Steve Pavlina's public speaking journey).

Goals for the week 

- Update the excel model (important for season)

- Update excel report

- Close 2 clients and bill them

- Start of section 2 in the bank. 

- Rehash module 2,3 & 4. Again. 

[The Motorcyclist]

Just need to jot my thoughts down, just too much confusion in the head.

What am i doing sales? So that I can get more clients
Why do I want more clients? so that i can make more money
Why do i want more money? - So that I can reach my earlier income levels and lifestyle. Also protect myself from financial costs (posed especially by mom's health)
Why do I want earlier income levels and lifestyle? - Is this what I'm really chasing? If not, then what am I really chasing? - I need to answer this

Top 3 things that can happen to me in 2017

- Already lost 13 kgs in 2016. So, of course, a better body. One of my key goals this year

- Clear 3 papers. Very fucking important. This is THE most important priority for the year. 

- Increase in income levels. To allow me the flexibility to invest in diet and personal development. 

Issues

The fucking issue is to generate this money, there is an immense time cost. 

Secondly, where the hell I want to go? I've identified professional speaking as one of the areas where I can explore my life purpose. Genuinely teach students to get their mindsets straightened up for exams. A struggle which I have had for many years and finally coming to overcome it. I went to a Toastmaster's meet three bloody years ago and I went again last week. There's just so much remorse that I didn't join 3 years back . Mental masturbated then.  The amount of growth I've missed over the years. Anyways, no point in getting sucked in shitty thoughts. Look forward, bitch. 

What matters is what can I do now. What am I doing now.What's the way forward. What are my mental blocks, limiting beliefs I need to identify and work on them. Most importantly, money psychology. I need to have a much better relationship with money. 

Dream Life

To have absolute control over my time and money. Period. 

Dream Work

Am doing my dream work? 

I'm really good at the what I'm doing now but won't classify it as dream work. Yes, I does feel awesome to provide genuine advise to client who've never gotten it before. Sharing pieces of information, they never got. Long term clients, will pay me over a much longer period. 

What is my dream work? or rather what am I so passionate about? 

Learning, Consulting, Excel, Modelling. Personal Development. Body/Fitness. 

As steve pavlina puts it (http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/01/what-is-your-career/)

Just because you’ve been working in a field for many years doesn’t mean you have to turn that pattern of work into your career. The past is the past. You can continue to run the same pattern and follow that same path into the future, but at any time you’re also free to make a total break with the past and turn yourself onto an entirely new career path in the future. Ask yourself if you were starting over from scratch today, fresh out of school, would you still choose the same line of work? If the answer is no, then you only have a job right now, not a career. Your career lies elsewhere.

I started the profession and I consciously chose it. Still clearing papers for it. But the work? I'm good at the work, feeds my stomach, runs my life, but I can't imagine doing this as a career. A side business or a hobby in the medium to long run. 

Steve writes, 

The solution I found was to look behind the labels and discover the core of my career. When I looked behind the labels of game programmer, game developer, and game publisher, I saw that the core of my career was entertaining people. That was the real purpose behind what I was doing. And that’s when it made sense to me that this was a very motivating purpose for me in my 20s, but that in my 30s it lost its edge because I had grown to the point in my own life where I felt that entertaining people was no longer the BEST way for me to contribute.

I think if you realize that your current work doesn’t fit who you are, then you have to make a choice. You have to decide if you deserve having a career that truly suits you. If you don’t feel you deserve it, then you will settle for defining your career in such narrow terms as job, money, paycheck, promotion, boss, coworkers, etc. No one is forcing you to accept that as your definition of career.

On the other hand, you can choose to embrace another definition of career that uses terms like purpose, calling, contribution, meaning, abundance, happiness, fulfillment, etc. This requires a top-down approach. You first think hard about what your purpose here is… what kind of contribution do you want to make with your life? Once you figure that out, then you work down to the level of how to manifest that in terms of the work you do.

If you don’t currently have a career that is deeply fulfilling to you in the sense that you know you’re contributing in a way that matters, then deep down, you will sabotage yourself from going too far with it. You will always know that you’re on the wrong path for you, and this is going to slap a demotivating slump over everything you try to do in that line of work. You’ll do your job, but you’ll never feel that you’re really living up to your potential. You’ll always have problems with procrastination and weak motivation, and they’ll never be resolved no matter how many time management strategies you attempt. Your job will never feel like a truly satisfying career — it just can’t grow into that because you’ve planted your career tree in bad soil. You’ll always be stuck with a bonsai.

But you see… self-actualizing people who successfully make this leap will at some point conclude that it’s definitely not OK. In fact, it’s intolerable. They wake up and say, “Wait a minute here. This is absolutely, totally unacceptable for me to be spending the bulk of my time at a job that isn’t a deeply fulfilling career. I can’t keep doing this. This ends now.”

Exactly my fucking problem. 

You set the standards for your career choices. Most likely your current standard ranks fulfillment and meaningful contribution very low in comparison to working on interesting tasks and making sufficient money. But those standards are yours to set. At any point you’re free to say, “Having a deeply meaningful and fulfilling career is an absolute MUST for me. Working for money alone is simply not an option.” And once you make this conscious choice, you WILL begin seeing the opportunities that fit this new standard. But you’ll never even recognize those opportunities as long as it remains OK for you to spend all your work time being unfulfilled.

I want to drive home this point. Having a fulfilling career that earns you plenty of money doesn’t require a leap of faith. It only requires a choice. You just have to wake up one day and tell yourself that you deserve both, and that you won’t settle for anything less. It’s not about finding the right job. A career isn’t something you find; it doesn’t require someone to give you something. You aren’t at the mercy of circumstances. A career is something you create, something you build. It means that the work you do each day is aligned with what you feel to be your purpose. Once you start doing this kind of work, even if for no pay initially, your self-esteem will grow to the point where you’ll become so resourceful and open to new opportunities that you’ll have no trouble making plenty of money from it. However, when you do so, the money won’t be that important. It will just be a resource for you to do more of what you love.

Need to put some serious thoughts in this. I can't keep having the same fucking problems all the time. 

[The Motorcyclist]

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/11/exploring-career-choices/

A career is just a hobby you’ve committed to exploring more deeply. You don’t need to make the perfect choice, since the enjoyment comes from the exploration, not the outcome. If you don’t enjoy the hobby, dump it and try something else. If you like the hobby, stick with it for a while.

What many people don’t realize, however, is that this exploration never ends. Exploring is an integral part of any fulfilling career, not merely something you do before making the choice. No career choice is final.

If you’re feeling stuck in your career choices, maybe none of them are right for you. Go outside your comfy hive. Do some of the things you’ve always wanted to try, even if they don’t seem relevant to your career. This exploration will serve you well.

While you can experience these steps in any order, I think enjoyment is the best place to begin, since clarity there will help you with the other three parts. Rarely do I see people achieve happy and fulfilling careers by going after what they think will earn them the most money if it isn’t something they’d already enjoy doing for free.

What do you already enjoy doing for free? What do you pay money for the privilege of doing? For every money-draining hobby, someone is already making good money by using their skill to provide a valuable service.

For example, many people love playing computer games. Some found a way to turn their hobby into a public service by launching game review sites, game download sites, game discussion forums, and similar businesses. Now publishers send them all the games they could want for free. When they don’t want to write the reviews themselves, they recruit other gamers to write for them.

Sure it takes a bit of work to turn a hobby into a career, but if you’re doing it for free anyway, why not find a way to share your skill with others, provide a useful service, and get paid for it?

Some of the things I really enjoy doing

- Excel Modelling

- Optimising my work through Excel. 

- Genuinely helping people. 

- Provide best possible consulting advisory. 

Just realised, 

- I've signed up for the Udemy courses for myself. Not for teaching others. 

- Need to stop serious mental masterbation around public speaking. 

Edited January 18, 2017 by The Motorcyclist

[The Motorcyclist]

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/11/do-you-have-a-deeply-fulfilling-career/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/11/the-challenge-of-choosing-the-right-career/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/11/how-to-create-a-fulfilling-career/

[The Motorcyclist]

Last couple of weeks have been transformational. Literally. 

I knew the root cause of my confusions could be solved in the life purpose course. It proved to be true. I bought this course last year and have been half-assing on it since. But as I progressed further into the course, I've discovered & understood the underlying parameters of my equation of psychology which runs my life, business & career. And also how these parameters were formed. I must admit that Leo has spent significant amount of thought in designing the life purpose course. Can only imagine the amount of work he must have done before he thought about this. Note to future self: Send Leo a detailed mail on this. 

As a result, on one hand there is immense clarity on the way further and on the other, regret of losing valuable time behind meaningless priorities. I've been half-ignoring my internal compass and playing a safe game which, in hindsight, has held me back from realising my potential. Especially, after I started freelancing. I should have figured my internal bullshit when I left the job. 

Heck, I've already shifted the gears in the last few weeks. Joined ToastMasters, stopped chasing clients for money (fucking soul-crushing), the subject is on high priority (already paid the fees this week) and finally writing a book this year. I just can't believe how the last few weeks have passed. Not a single day has felt like work. I'm just glad to be back on my learning process full time. Got some powerful ideas to work on. And some lofty questions to answer. I can now SEE & PLAN my way towards the Life Purpose. I just FEEL free. . 

 Have updated my 2017 goals accordingly. 

Here's how 2017 looks like,

- Workout goals ( 24 Pull Ups, 36 Basketball Push ups). Diet (Paleo - 70%)

- Need to clear 3 exams. 1 in April and 2 in October. 

- Write an ebook. 

- NOT to pursue ANY activity where the core intention is to make money. This has been fucking me since over a decade. Fuck, I should've realised earlier. 

- Developing skill sets to enhance learning capabilities. Which in turn helps me clearing exams. Which in turn steers to my year 2 plan which in turn leads to Life Purpose. There's just too much ground to cover before I start any Life Purpose work. Precisely, 3 years. 

Journaling

- One habit to install this month. Can't manage a daily journal on actualized.org. So weekly summaries will be plugged here. Daily accountability will be held in held in hard copies of the calendar I've printed. Something I picked up from Brian Johnson's video. 

-  So every week, Sat/Sun, 1-2 hours on journaling here. 

Progress

- Finally, I've managed to manage myself through a calendar. Last month was successful. Managed more to accomplish than listed. Current month's progress is promising.

- Progress on the subject. Exam is on 20th April. This month syllabus will be finished. So I'm left with entire March/April for papers. Close to 7 weeks for intense practice. Should be enough. 20 Papers. Stocker. The Process. 

- Mind mapping. One mutherfucking of a skill I picked up since last entry. This stuff has changed the way I study and recall information. Have already started using this in the current subject and the I can see the results for myself. 

Book

- Have built the skeleton already.  

- Finish the first draft before the exam. 

Calender

- Planned already.

Travel for the year

- Meditation retreat in October and/or Trip to Thailand.

Life Purpose

- Will have to go through some the videos again. Rehash the journal for some minor tweaks. 

Personal Development

- Sign up for Brian Johnson's Hero Training in April.

- Started using Paraliminals. Not sure they work or not but they're very relaxing. 

See myself back here next week.

[The Motorcyclist]

Made it this week. 

Couple of things I've accomplished,

• Mind mapped the entire ebook. I've identified the areas which need more ideas. The flow is a bit inconsistent in a few sections and that needs working. 
• Have managed to start the question bank of part 2. Question papers started for Part 1. Need to rehash part 3 this week and complete part 4 by the end of the month. Basic plan is to have 7 weeks to practice past papers. Target is by 1st of March I need to finish the last 2 sections. Effectively, solving 25 papers till April. 
• Went for my first TM meet as a member. Did a Table Topic. Fucking sucked totally, My body language was off, zero eye contact with the audience, I was just slurring. Fuck man, this needs a lot of work. I'll have to allocate some time in my schedule after the exams for this. Probably replace it with the ebook time I'm spending.

I've thinking about making changes in my schedule to introduce a 4 hour block of time to boost productivity. So, the day looks like this,

4 am  - Get up

5 - 9 am - 4 hour block to study. 

9 - 11 am - Gym, Breakfast etc.

11.30 - 1.30 pm - 2 hour block to study. 

2 - 6 pm - 4 hour block to study. With a tea break in the middle. 

6 - 8 pm - Dinner, Reading, Research. 

9 pm - Lights off.  

Now, this will not work on the days when I have to go to the office. So I'll have to manage myself on those days. Let's try this for a week and see the results. 

Good Things

• Thinking to but Cal Newport's books. All 3. Will start searching from tomorrow. 
• Bike needs servicing. Need to buy a new tire. This is going consume a fucking day. 
• Another fucking day consumed for a meeting next week. (Need to serious planning for next week)
• Finally able to manage my time a bit effectively using & planning a calendar. Thanks to Brian Johnson's vid.
• Perfect workout week. 

Shitty Things

• Slacked on diet for a day. Hogged on fried stuff and felt guilty about it later on. 
• Had some rum. Though, minimum. But had it. Need to get off this completely. 
• Could have managed my time a bit better. I fucked up some slots. 
• Napping time needs to be changed. 

Way Ahead

• Change in routine this week. Write feedback here next week.
• Absolute control over studies.
• Have minimal work to deliver in the next week so I need to take advantage of that.
• Complete the entire mind map for the book.
• Finish the Udemy course on writing. And start the other ones. 

That's all for now. 

Check-in again next week. 
 

[The Motorcyclist]

Made it.

Changed the routine but the following didn't work, 

4 am  - Get up - Tested. Working. 

5 - 9 am - 4 hour block to study. - Tested. Working. 

 9 - 11 am - Gym, Breakfast etc. - Stretches till 11.30. Managed to study for one day. Rest of the days, this block 

11.30 - 1.30 pm - 2 hour block to study. - Managed to study for one day. Rest of the days, this block was utilised as expected. 

2 - 6 pm - 4 hour block to study. With a tea break in the middle.  Not working out for the same subject. 

6 - 8 pm - Dinner, Reading, Research.  - Working

9 pm - Lights off.  - Working

Notes - So, 11.30 to 6 needs to be optimised. And planned. 

Couple of things started this week,

• Started a basic wordpress blog. Need to learn a fucking lot here. If I want to set up something running. 
• Started Cal Newport's How To Become a Straight A Student.  

Progress

• Finished Ch 13 of the subject. Practising now. 
• Section 2 chapter 9 revision is on. 
• Target for the month is to complete all chapters.

 Ideas

1. eBook: I'm kinda confused between a blog and an ebook. Come to think of it, what's my goal here? The end goal is to setup a passive stream of income. Given that, I need to delete all the potential active sources of income. Now, I know I can create something of value. Having checked out a couple of blogs, I think the ideal medium would be a blog and not a book (I mean, book can be made even after the blog is made, or vice versa). Have anyways started exploring Wordpress. The idea needs to more refined after doing some more research. I need to brainstorm here rather than roaming around in circles, per usual. On second thoughts, let me go back to 4HWW. 

Core Idea: Offer value and generate passive income.

How :  Need to select the medium. 

2. Online Course for Exam Prep: From the start this would be a phenomenal contribution. Money or no money. On second thoughts, I'd do it without the money. I think I can offer a lot here and I've got some solid ideas here. Yes, it could a potential source of passive income. This needs a lot of work and the biggest upside is it'll reinforce my own exam prep. If I pick this up, it'll demand a significant time commitment, for all the exams. Which will be end of next year. This is more like a long term thing rather than a short term stint. Plus, I'll have to rope in a couple of people. This won't work out like that. 

What's my priority of the two? Honestly, it would be the passive income. At least by the end of the year, something will start pouring. 

Which is more beneficial to me as a person? And my goals? Downright, the online course.

Which of the two is more aligned to my life purpose? Option 2. 

Now that this is out of the system. The answer is clear. I'll take the course on priority and the book/blog and hold till after the exam. 

What next? I've already mapped what I need to do. Next step is preparing content. This is something I can start brainstorming from tomorrow. 

Good things

• Nap time changed.
• Perfect workout week
• New schedule in implementation

Not-so-good things (Being Optimistic)

• Time slots can be managed better. On second thoughts I need to EXACTLY plan out the entire of next week. Not just the to do points.
• Minimum whiskey. Lost my diet for that evening
• Bike not services. Take this on priority next week. Ideally Friday. 

Way Ahead

• Completion of the subject in this month. I've got 10 days.
• Work on the ability to stay focused for 4 hours in the morning slot.
• Complete How to .. Cal Newport. 

Check in again next week.

[The Motorcyclist]

Another week passed, quite quickly. 

Good things

• Nap time changed.
• Perfect workout week
• New schedule in implemented. Minor tweaks required.  
• Good progress in the course. 
• New time management schedule implemented
• How to Become a Straight A student in progress. I have already started using some of the key ideas. 

Not So Good Things

• Bike not serviced. 
• Time could be managed better. 
• How to be...yet to be completed. 

Blog : It's hard work. And time consuming. Considering the onslaught of the clients I'll be getting this month, I won't be able to update it as I'd want to. But there's a flip side. The mind maps have now allowed me to make connections between concepts which I had never done. I'm able to visualise and conceptualise complex concepts effectively & efficiently. Though I may not be able to do it online, I'm doing it offline. And I'll have squeeze in time to make everything online. Not sure how, I'll have to figure it out. 

This has led to a much deeper understanding of the subject. Something, I used to keep for last. As Cal Newport (CN) puts it, my earlier study sessions can classified as pseudo work whereas the weeks preceding before the exam were real work. Now what if, I did real work fro day 1. Things would be drastically different.

TM Meet: Not sure why people don't give genuine advice. There was this speaker who had worked quite hard on his speech. And as it was a contest, he ensured that he had the right props and things like that. Awesome speech. And when I asked him a few pointed questions about his preparation & aptitude, I got vague answers. As if he shared his secret and I'd make millions off it. Not sure why, but people who set out to achieve a particular thing and when you ask them how they did it, they feed you crap. Per usual, I'll be setting out in this journey alone until I find someone who's genuinely interested in my progress. 

Workout: I've made changes in the schedule. Let's see how this month goes. Focus is on upper body for the next six months. 

Work : This month will be a bit hectic. Will have to be prepared for distractions in the routine. 

Life Purpose work: Currently, reading a book by G Richard Shell. I'll revisit the life purpose journal again once the exams are over. Need to finish the concluding videos as well. 

Way Ahead

• Completion of subject
• Start papers
• Prepare for work.
• Finish the model. 

Checkin again next week.