The great part is that you’re only a few years away and if you stick to it you’ll actually end up here.

Picture the most beautiful ocean water you’ve ever seen, sand as white as pearls, air as fresh as the most wonderful spring day and a never ending feeling of exhilaration as you go from moment to moment during the day.

If and only if, you STICK TO IT!

Initially I was going to tell you to be disciplined, but that word often conjures up images and thoughts of an oversized school teacher pointing a finger and swinger her ruler at every available part of your body she can get to. PAINFUL to think about… painful that word discipline. So we, stick to it.

• Stick To It In Spite of Fear
• Stick To It In Spite of Doubt
• Stick To It In Spite of The Pain
• Stick To It In Spite of Humiliation

This is getting a bit long and you need to get back to work so you can achieve paradise. But, I’ll leave you with this one last thing.

Stepping out on faith is something most dreamers have to do, yet that faith is only strengthened when you stick to it and take action. Take massive action, take little action, take some for of action by the second, minute, day etc. Soon those actions will strengthen your faith, remove all fear, doubt, worry, pain and shame. You don’t get from pain to paradise by doing nothing. You have to take action and keep going in the right direction.

I hope you stick to it, so you make it here, to see it all for yourself. Hurry Up, paradise awaits!

- TRENDS * From The Future – DEC 2013*

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It’s been said that those who do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result can be considered insane, crazy and in need of a head examination. Yet still, the world is filled with walking crazies who put on their shiny white jackets, take their dose of meds and dive head first into the wall of life.

Whether you call it a treadmill, the matrix or the carnival of life, we all have been programmed to accept this as living. Doing the same things, the same tasks, the same conversations, the same mistakes and the same exhaustive routine over and over again, expecting it to get better somehow. We do this day in, day out wanting, yearning, wishing for things to change and then do it all over again. Insane right?

Very rarely do we stop before we hop onto this ferris wheel of life and decide that it may be time to try a new approach, a new ride. Sailboat perhaps instead of a ferris wheel?

What sparked this line of thinking you ask?

Well… While being held captive and forced to watch the final episodes of Oprah ( Yes Oprah ), I happened to catch the episode that featured Ralph Lauren and family. A celebration of his achievements, triumphs and rise to American iconic stature. What struck me wasn’t all the red, white and blue, inspirational tales, or the way Oprah can get away asking questions without seeming nosy. No, what struck a chord was how starting out, this icon set out to change the world of fashion the way he saw fit, only to end up on a farm filled with cows, goats and a lot of peace and quiet.

Imagine that? After all the achievements, accolades and gazzilions of dollars. This great American hero preferred to spend his time, with his family, chasing the peace and quiet of life. To hear himself think, to engage in laughter, to be one with streams, leaves and the soft whispers of nature.

What made this interesting was that it seemed many celebrities, many icons, many leaders and many important folks in society end up taking the same path. They chase the name, the struggle, the spotlight, the accolades, only to end up on a ranch, on a farm, on some hidden island, away from everything they chased in the beginning.

Now we may not all be celebrities, icons or on Oprah’s speed dial, once click away from our featured interview, but we all have some of the traits in common. We chase life to end up chasing tranquility. We do everything we’re suppose to do, study, learn, walk in a straight line, color in a straight life, clock in, clock out… getting smiley faces and stars as kids, getting plaques and certificates as adults. Being cheered and revered, being beaten and hunted as we hunt to make meaning of our lives. Some rise to become icons, many of us remain only pieces in life that make it work for others, and many of us self destruct into pills, bottles, poverty and normality. Too burned out to keep running.

We run, we chase, we cry, we chase, we live, we chase, we struggle, we chase, we die… end chase.

Is it all really worth it? Does the chase really matter? If at the end of the day we want peace, we want tranquility and time to spend with the whispers of nature and the laughter of life?

What are you chasing and does it really matter?

- TRENDS

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You’re trying to lose weight, your inner skinny guy has you all revved up to go eat healthy, not scarf down that whole chocolate cake and has you outrunning a Bugatti Veyron, bugs in your teeth and all. Nothing can stop you, you’re at your peak, the world is your beating stick… YOU RULE!

but then one day… Here comes your inner fat bastard!

It’s a cold day, your bed feels all warm and cozy, Law and Order reruns are on for the whole day, cold pizza is the only thing you can muster the energy up to “cook” and now you’re thinking that inner skinny guy was a dumb ass for racing a sports car ’cause now your feet hurt. Dumb ass indeed… you’ve listened to your inner fat bastard.

What just happened here?

Your inner fat bastard just kicked your inner skinny guy’s ass and now you’re way off from your weight loss goal. Now you have to start all over again and now you won’t be able to take off your shirt this summer and show your six pack off to tha ladies. Sad for you and your old kegger!

The same thing tends to happen when you decide to take on a challenge bigger than your self, a challenge that will make you stretch, go outside of your comfort zone, put on your superhuman cape, grow a pair of cajones ( yes I’m talking to you ladies ), and kick some ass!

All of a sudden you go from super ninja super hero to this guy…

Your Inner Wimp shows up with the usual:
“Now I’m not too sure you’re suppose to be doing that! Remember that last guy who tried to do that thing and become a better person? That didn’t work out too well for him at all! He went broke, had to move in with his parents, everyone laughed at him and now he spends his days in a basement feeling sorry for himself.

Do you want that to happen to us?”

Your Inner Wimp comes up with excuse after excuse, cautionary tale after the next, sharing all the reasons why you should stay away from doing something great, something that can change your life for the better.

Your Inner Wimp brings up every time you’ve failed in life, every time you made a mistake… “and don’t forget that time you spilled coffee on your new shirt! How can you become wealthy when you can’t even keep your shirt clean?”

Your Inner Wimp Screams Fear…. “What the hell are you trying to do? Kill Us? Stop!!! Stop trying to be amazing!!!”

I’m sorry… I don’t condone murder, but it’s time to kill your inner wimp!

Why?

He’s only keeping you back from becoming your best you. He or she has you enveloped in fear that will at best, only allow you to be mediocre in life.

Fear you will embarrass yourself, fear you won’t meet your goal, fear you’ve lost your step, fear others will judge you, fear you’ll succeed and the great fear you will only… FAIL.

The Inner Wimp in you is the fear talking and when you create a route of listening to that fear, you create a routine of mediocrity.

It may be challenging but it’s time to move passed that fear and conquer your life.

How?
1. Spend some time looking into your life, your mistakes and then your successes. Are you really that much of a failure? Why did you not meet your goals and when you succeeded, what was different? How can you do more of those successful things to accomplish your goals?

2. Prepare yourself, so you’re more confident in your actions. The more prepared you are is the less doubt you have to whether you’re on the right path or not. Do your homework, do that research, be prepared.

3. When you hear that fear talking, tune it out, think of your favorite song, thing of how you’ll feel when you actually accomplish your ultimate goal. The great feeling will drown out the fear.

4. Take small steps to build up your confidence level, then take bold leaps. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other, will help you stay on the right track. No one started out being Superman before they were Clark Kent. It took time, discovery of talents, learning what they were best at, knowing their strengths and weakness. Learning to crawl, walk, run and then fly.

5. Know that success is a process and not a destination. There will be setbacks, detours and challenges, but those are the things that ultimately will make us grow in the long run. Those challenges aren’t there to kill our dreams, they’re there to help us stretch ourselves and bring out the best in us.

6. Model and discover more successful people. What did they do? what were their habits? How did they become great? Read their stories, study their habits and then develop strong habits of your own. Quite likely you’ll also learn, that they were human too and didn’t just become legendary over night. Neither will you, so why even beat up on yourself?

7. Learn ways you tend to sabotage your own success. What do you say to yourself? What do you start thinking? What do you start doing? Are you procrastinating? Are you listening too much to your self talk and talking yourself out of taking the necessary action? Study yourself, know your signals, then do less and less of those negative things.

8. If all else fails, just imagine yourself duct taping your inner wimp, locking him in the trunk of a car, backing the car up against a cliff and pushing it over into the river. Dramatic I know, but it’s either you or him, this is the wimp trying to kill your dreams and eventually kill you.

Decide…

It’s time to kill your inner wimp!

It’s time to be bold, take on challenges, become a better you, live the life you always wanted to live and ultimately break through your fear.

Now It’s Your Turn!

1. What inner challenges/fears are you facing and how can you get over them?

2. Leave a comment below with ways you’ve overcome your own self doubt and fear. How did you kill your inner wimp?

3. Share this with your friends on facebook, twitter or shoot them and email with the link.

Get to it!

- TRENDS

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The greatest investor of all time and arguably the best rapper of all time, together in one room?

Discussing what? Investment strategies? How to sample a hit? Who their favorite tailor is? How to dodge bullets and make it into a song?

Actually yes and no… this was an amazing interview I woke up to last Thursday which was shared by one of my great friends Leo on his facebook page.

In the interview Warren and Jay Z discussed more that survival in the projects. They discussed some of the true elements to become successful not only in business and music, but in life.

It’s worth watching when you have some solid time ( it’s 50+ minutes ). Beats the heck watching Dancing with the Stars or whatever amazing shows they have on TV right now. If you missed the sarcasm, I was only joking about TV being amazing.

And now…

Here’s the interview!

What’s Next?

1. Spend some time thinking about your own greatness. Do you know what will make you legendary in your own right?

2. Leave a comment below and let me know what you thought about this interview.

3. Share this video with your friends by email, facebook or twitter.

Go be great!

- TRENDS

My good friend Jeremy sent me this video to get me back on track with my mission.

I appreciated it and hopefully you do too.

It was appropriate in the 1950s and is still applicable today!

Enjoy!

What’s your thoughts?

- TRENDS

How long is it?

7 Days? 30 Days? 90 Days?

Um… let’s try about 365 Days!

A year? Crazy right?

But no I’m not losing it or drinking anything too heavy, just a plan to focus one year on a project to get to a different level.

I just want to be able to splurge on get some scrimps from the menu and not have to check my bank account in advance. Some of you know how that feels right?

Anyway… here’s the plan.

For the first 90 Days I’ll be focused on the foundation of my project and getting it going.

This includes setting goals, doing research, creating a SWOT analysis, registering a new company, acting like a business and building up my discipline muscle etc.

Etc probably includes another million things to do, but I figure if I get through this first 90 Days, the rest will be a breeze.

What makes the challenge any different than my other?

I have a final/specific goal I’m working towards for this project, which is generate a monthly six figures in 12 months with the option to cash out at 7 figures.

Hmmm… “I’m so ambitious!”

This calls for lots of discipline, motivation, accountability partners, prayer and lots of red bull verve. LOL

The good thing is that I’ve seen it done before, by friends close to me and I believe I have what it takes to get it done.

Today, Day 1 was setting goals for the project, traffic goals for the website, how many members I want on the email list, alexa ranking of the site and also financial goals.

No Goals, No Growth!

Let’s Go!

- TRENDS

P.S. What happened to what I was doing before?

I canned that and am now focusing on a singular project and goal.

Wish me good luck!

It’s been a minute since I’ve posted a challenge update, so here goes.

As mentioned before I’ve been dialing down into one major project that I’ve been working on. It’s occupied a lot more of my time than everything else and I’ve decided to throw all my talents, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Viral Marketing, etc at this one project.

One project, one focus is goal. Of course there are other little side projects, but in terms of day to day this project, let’s call it Project LOL, will occupy the majority of my time.

Why you ask? What happened to all the million blogs etc?

I’ve been following the success of some very close friends, who are ballin’ out of control now and they spent 18 months, just focusing on making their one major project a success. Actually they gave me that advice recently as well that had me thinking. Based on their plan, they’re pretty damn successful with a little focus and dedication.

I can’t tell you what they’re making focusing on their internet project, but let’s just say that sitting very pretty right now. Probably making some doctor’s annual salary in a month. Yeh, pretty sweet huh?

Also while trying to juggle a bunch of projects like it’s a circus, little things began to fall here and there for me. Then out the blue one day another close friend hit me up on messenger and said, “you know what, you should probably focus on just this one thing, because I can see it becoming very big!”

I guess you don’t have to tell me twice right?

So the mission is to kick ass with this one site, day in, day out to make it a super success, which I believe it will.

Where am I now on this project?

- I’ve set up the blog for it
- Customized it with 51 plug ins
- Added affiliate products related to the niche, so if people buy something I get a commission
- Have it indexed by the three major search engines
- Installed the email list for it with Aweber.com to acquire as many visitor contacts
- Installed tons of security programs ( Hack attempts have already made, and it’s only been a few weeks )
- Loaded site files to Amazon.com so the site loads faster and is not bogged down by traffic
- Did SEO research for 297 keywords related to the niche
- Set up social media accounts on twitter, facebook and youtube
- Started following leading blogs and sites in the niche daily to see what they’re working on and they’re different strategies
- Created a posting schedule for the blog to stay on top of content
- Plus much more

Of course there have been tons of challenges, like plug in installs conflicting and crashing the site, figuring out code, actually having the site hacked already and spending hours tweaking tweaking so it works in all browsers. Internet Explorer sucks by the way, but that’s what most users use.

Upcoming for this project, I have to:

- Come up with original content so the site stands out in the cluttered niche
- Start posting content related on the keywords researched and getting traffic to the site in drove
- Interact with the community to get them to visit and enjoy the site
- Test out marketing strategies to get attention for the site
- Track results of efforts
- Get a durable back up service for the blog, just in case anything goes haywire
- Then start outsourcing to get others to help build traffic/visitors to the website

Of course each step is way more detailed than listed above, but I’m sure your eyes will glaze over if I go too in depth into things like article marketing and getting the right keyword, with the right amount of unique visitors for the word, with the right amount of competition for that keyword. Yeh not too exciting.

But as you can see, a lot has been done and there’s tons more to do. The main challenge however is sticking to this one goal and focusing on this one project until it becomes a success.

Stay tuned for more. Oh and I have hit one milestone already, the site’s gotten hacked.

- TRENDS

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The title of this post was inspired yet again by Mr. Will Smith during his latest interview with the Queen of All Women tuned in between 4 & 5 pm daily, OPRAH!

I thought it a better title than, “When Shit Hits The Fan!”… what do you think?

Anyway… for some reason that title got stuck in my head today and it really rang home and pretty much summed up my 2010 in review thus far. Has it been an amazingly shitty year for you as well?

Before we break out the violins though for the sad stories, let’s think about this for a while.

Greatness Lives on The Edge of Destruction… hmm!

If you really think it through, it really means that during life we’re met with tons of challenges and it’s those challenges that really test us to see who we are and what we’re really made of. Do you really have what it takes to pursue your goals? Are you going to give up at the sign of a little set back? Will you just throw your hands up in the air and beg for an Obama bailout… they’re giving away tons of those nowadays.

or

Will you wipe the blood off your face, the tears out your eyes, guilt out your mind, fear out your heart, to dig deep, to fight back, to tap into your reserve tank and really give it a go. Really change the outcome of what appears to be a totally catastrophic situation.

Which is it? Destruction or Greatness? Fight or Flight?

Right now you may be wondering the same thing to yourself? You may be even thinking “Shit! Can it get any worse? Did the universe just decide it was beat the hell out of ( insert your name here ) year in 2010?”

It may be the bills piling up, the bill collectors calling, you got into a car accident, your boss is an asshole, your kid had to be rushed into the hospital, you just got knocked up by some loser, someone in your family just died… and who the hell ate the last of my favorite cookies? DAMN IT!

Guess what? It’s called Life! Life never ends, challenges never cease and the world is filled with morons and negative people ready to make your life a living hell. BUT you do have a choice…

Destruction or Greatness?

If you look around, the world is overflowing with destroyed people, and you’re probably quite familiar with many of them?

Do you know people who complain a lot?

People who justify why they’re life is in the dumps?

Folks who blame the world for all the ills in their lives?

“The only reason why my life is a mess is because none of these 10 kids baby daddies won’t pay their child support on time!”

Um Yeh!

Even worse… Does any of this describe YOU? ( Minus the baby daddies of course! )

Is It YOU?

We all have to take a long look in the mirror sometimes and really think about who we are, and what we’d like to become. And I’m sure Destroyed by Life was never on the check list, when you were thinking of your future. BUT there’s hope, you can…

Decide to Be Great

You may not want to hear this right now, but it’s time to stop feeling sorry for yourself and yelling “the sky is falling”. It’s time to decide to be great. Now you don’t have to go cut out a cape and put and S on your chest or anything, but you can tackle things differently. You can take on one challenge at a time, bit by bit, set a plan, be flexible when things don’t work out the way you want it and just get moving in a better direction.

It’s not like the bitching and complaining is working out for you all that well anyway right?

Bit by bit, little by little, with patience, with time, with a little disciple and with some faith you’d be surprised how great you can become.

If you’re already on your way to becoming great, well, great for you and I hope you find a way to help your friends and others around you to become great themselves.

For the others of us who are not quite there yet, it’s time to decide…

Will you become great or be destroyed?

- TRENDS

P.S. I decided to be great…

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A couple of responses you may get are:

- The “You’re Crazy!”
- The Raised Eyebrow “What You Talkin’ ’bout Willis!?”
- The Half Hearted “Oh… that… sounds… good!”
- The “Tell Me How That Works Out for You!”

and my favorite “That’ll Never Work!”

I mean who can blame people right? Nowadays we have very little to believe in, or have confidence in. Between lying politicians, scam artist investors, fallen celebrities and even the failure of our own families, it makes sense not to believe in you… for now at least.

So What Now? Everyone Believes You’re Going to #FAIL

At this point you only have two choices, prove everyone right and fail or prove everyone wrong and succeed. There’s no half failing or half succeeding. It’s either you fail or not, succeed or not. Simple!

The Problem With Believing Everyone’s Right
The problem with believing everyone’s right and not going after your dreams is not that you don’t believe in yourself, it’s that you believe more in their fear.

It’s not that your friends, family and even the random onlookers don’t want you to win, they’re just scared. Scared that you may fail and hurt yourself, look like a fool and just fall flat on your face. More importantly they’re scared that they can’t do it themselves and it’s often that fear projected onto you.

Sometimes you even hear the, “Man I had this one friend that tried that and now he’s dead. Well not really dead, but he’s dead to me.”

Don’t let their fear or doubt stop you, it’s up to you to prove them wrong.

Proving Everyone’s Wrong
Now this part takes a lot of balls, guts for the ladies, and yes you have to be a little bit crazy to go all out for your goals in life.

You’re going to have to sometimes say “fuck em!” and just go for it. Sometimes miss step for the world to see, have setbacks, get ridiculed and sometimes feel very alone in a world filled of non-believers.

Many times you may even wonder to yourself if you’re actually totally nuts, find moments of doubt, but you have to ask yourself if your goals are worth it. At these times it’s up to you to dig deep and break through those tough times. Because it won’t be a cake walk and just because you decided to go all out for your goals and dreams, doesn’t mean the skies will open up, birds will sing and you’ll float all the way to a celebration fit for royalty.

It’s just not going to happen that way. Yet with a bit of resolve, patience and resilience you could actually be the success you believe you can be.

Note: Now don’t go doing something stupid like jumping off a cliff expecting to sprout wings or anything like that.

Make sure you’ve done your research, put out your best work and always strive to improve. And then just go out and do it. Experience will help you hone your craft and become the best at what you want to do.

My take is that at the end of the day, if you fail you’ll get to play it safe and be regular like everyone else. Yeh, some may even get to laugh at you a bit… “Remember that one time he tried to become successful?! Told you it wouldn’t work!”

BUT at least for a moment in life you were alive and going after your dreams. Then of course everyone will celebrate, and tell the world they always knew you would make it.

Good luck and all the best!

- TRENDS

You get to love life a little more.

Making good progress on my websites and all. The ones I initially created are starting to rank after just a few weeks. One of the sites is even now on the front page of google, after some article submission, and blog network marketing. Pretty sweet right?

On the progress of my million blogs in a day project… #EPIC FAIL!

Now this is not because I’m being lazy or anything, so stop yelling at the screen. I’ve actually been spending the last week setting up one of my main sites. ( Don’t ask me for the link, cause I won’t be sharing. ) No it’s not porn related either. But it’s a lot of fun and will be applying tons of my internet marketing skills to it.

It’s come with a lot of challenges though, which has taken up a lot of time.

Finding the right theme, tweaking it with plug ins, configuring it with ideas from other sites I visit all the time ( swipe file ), after getting the site to work, almost losing everything, setting up email lists, the email list not working, finding tons of content, putting together strategy to stand out, plus plus plus!

But in all the late nights and suffering, I’ve learned a lot about myself… this is exactly what I enjoy doing. “Why didn’t I focus on this more before?”

It’s early stages but I’m looking forward to growing this main site into something powerful and profitable in a few months.

Already sought out feedback from one of my unofficial mentors on it. So we’ll see how that goes.

Lesson!
- Do what you love doing, you’ll feel more fulfilled at the end of the day.

What are you doing that you love? ( For profit of course lol )

- TRENDS

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