With that being said, let me tell you the backdrop of the story:

Just about every penny I made in the
last 2 years I sunk back into my business in
one form or another.

And most of that money went right down the
toilet.

I’ve spent so much on training, ebooks, courses,
software… you name it, I’ve tried it.

I was looking back at how much I’ve spent “trying
out” different bus’ness opportunities, marketing
programs, and other tools to help me grow my
business.

And the shocking thing is this year alone
I’ve spent in excess of $10,000 just “messing
around”.. (oops!)

But that tells you a LOT about success in the
business world.  I could’ve dumped that in
to some fancy car so I could shoot a video
and try to hype you up.. then try and “sell
you” on getting in to my business.

That is NOT what I believe success to be.

But in order to get to this kind of level
in business you need to learn to:

DELAY GRATIFICATION!

Put off buying the big expensive toys and
stuff, and focus on growing your business.

This was NOT my ‘number 1 goal’ this past
year.. It was my ONLY goal.

** So, why am I telling you this?? **

I told you that so I could tell you
the “tragic” part.

In early July (right before I had my first
$20k+ month) it was getting warmer out
and I wanted to throw on a pair of shorts..

I got dressed and did one of those “double takes”.

I looked at my jean shorts and thought to
myself, “I think my mom bought these for me
while I was still in high school – like 10 years
ago..”

I asked my wife (we’ve been together since
high school so SHE’D KNOW TOO) and she confirmed
my suspicion.  It was a nerdy, tattered, late 90s
pair of jean shorts.  UGH!

So my wife and I hopped in the car to go buy
me some new summer clothes for the first time
in a long time…

No – I didn’t go to some “ritzy” expensive store.

I went to Old Navy for god’s sake.  And there
was even a sale, so yea – I was still being a
“tad cheap”.

But you’ve got to realize the mental breakdown
I was having at this point.  I had sunk EVERYTHING
in to growing my business.  And not just for the
last 2 years or so.  I’m talking about the last 5
years, most of which was brutal failure, rejection,
sleepless nights, and heart ache.

Seriously – I couldn’t look myself in the mirror
2 years ago when I got fired. I felt like a total
failure. And all I wanted to do was beat myself
into submission.

My self esteem was all but gone. I considered
myself “the victim”. But I still wanted MORE.
And I wasn’t going to stop working until I
figured it out.

And I didn’t stop working for such a long
time, I forgot how to “not be stressed!”

I was literally *afraid* to enjoy myself because
I had been the “victim” for so long.

And now here I am, afraid to spend any money
on myself, standing in a clothing store wondering
if I should even be there.

Luckily my wife was there to guide me with my
shopping experience – haha.

So I approached the cashier, she tallied up the
pile of clothes, and it came out to just over $100.

I went to hand over the credit card to pay and
I just couldn’t. My hand holding the card was
literally trembling.

*I felt like I was giving her one of my kidneys…”

I was ready to break down and cry right there
in the middle of the clothing store.

And you might be thinking, “Big deal. I have a
pair of pants/shoes that cost over $100, and you just
bought a new *summer wardrobe* for that..
what’s the big deal!?”

The big deal was I felt like I had had the first
real “victory” in a long time. I felt like Rudy -
you know the football movie, right? Where
the kid fights his whole life to play just ONCE
for the Notre Dame college football team.

All the of pain, rejection, failure, and self defeat
accumulated into one moment, and the next
moment I was free from it. I was no longer
going to hold myself back. I was no longer
going to get in my own way.

==> I was thinking the other day: all us guys
want to be the “knight in shining armor.” We
want to be the warrior who slays a dragon
to win over the damsel in distress.

We want to be gladiators.

Now, we might not be able to pickup a sword
and shield and fight to victory.

But I feel that every time I sponsor a new
person, every time I coach my business partners,
and every time I do a training webinar or create
a training product… I feel like I’m wielding a sword.

That may sound corny. But I feel like I’m fighting
for my freedom every day, and that’s as close as
I can describe it.

I feel like a hero. And I never felt like that working
for someone else before. I think it’s a feeling
that you can only get when you work on
your own business.

==> Please leave your comments and thoughts below!

Adam Holland

And you probably didn’t even know he was diagnosed w/ ADHD at the age of 9.  By the time he was 11 he was managing his ADHD without medication.   How?  By keeping a very intense and busy schedule (especially with swimming training) he was able to maintain focus and control his hyperactivity.

I immediately thought of my daily schedule.  When I used to get depressed years ago, was it because I wasn’t happy – or was I just BORED?  And imagine if I could channel that same focus Michael has into something GREAT…

Think about that for a moment.

If you tally up all of the minutes you spend in one day, are they directed towards one goal?  Or are you like most people, just floating from day to day without direction?

I used to play video games and watch movied almost as much as I worked…  And I’m sure many people in their mid-twenties would agree that we spend ALOT of time after 5pm in our social circle…

Imagine if only 5% of people Michael’s age showed his diligence and ambition in other areas…  Imagine focusing our energy in growing ourselves…  And like my friend Mike Li says “I’m Designing My Future One Day at a Time.”

Rebel.  Change.  Start a Revolution in Your Life.  Live moment to moment, but with PURPOSE…  What a feeling life can be…

Join the Revolution

And after 2 full weeks of working from home full time, I realized that my laziness can EASILY take me over…

When I was working 8am-10pm, I was DEAD FOCUSED on every minute of my day… When it was time to write an article, I did it…  When I needed to write an ad, setup a PPC campaign, write site content… it was in my schedule… and it was on a to-do list.

But, now, the XBOX gets in the way… or movies-on-demand… or just messing around on the internet, or socializing with friends…  Really, ANYTHING but working…

We are a product of our environment.  When I was still working those hours, home was only good for 2 things… video games/tv time and sleep.   That’s pretty much it.

So, now, when I try to do work my sub-conscious tells me, “Adam, you’re walking in to the room w/ the 42″ plasma screen TV… you’re going to play video games or watch a movie…”  and I just go “ok!”   So, needless to say, distractions are at their utmost at home.  Especially w/ 2 dogs running around wanting attention too.

So, last Friday I decided to leave my house.  I put the dogs in their cage, grabbed my laptop, some books, some food and headed over to my mom’s house not but 20 mins away…  2 weeks prior I wrote 2 auto-responder messages and made some graphics for the new self-development site I’m launching in the next week or so…  yea, 2 WEEKS to do that!

One day ALONE with NO distractions and I create 5 more content-rich messages and I also completed the rest of the new opt-in page.

What am I getting at here?  Well, I didn’t take my own darn advice!

When you work from home you need to have a separate area that is distraction-free and dedicated to your business!

That way when family sees you in there, they know not to bother you because you’re working!  There’s NOTHING in that room that is going to deter you from your work…  maybe no TV, no non-business books…

This week, I’m going to try working from my DESK and not the couch and we’ll see how it goes!

Living in NY and following the Giants through out the season (their training camp is even in Albany   ) I got to see the events unfold 1 week at a time…

The REAL reason the Giants won isn’t just because they decided to pull together and work as a team… it wasn’t just their talent or a little luck…

Like Strahan said in the post-game, it’s all about confidence…  <———

The week that the team stopped talking about how it was this persons fault or that person’s… if Coughlin was a good enough coach, and if Eli had a leadership problem…

The moment that they began to UPLIFT and ENCOURAGE each other is the REAL moment they became Champions…  When they began to SPEAK the right words… THAT is when things started to come together…

They fed off of each other’s enthusiasm and confidence, and that confidence carried them through the biggest games of their lives…

REMEMBER TO UPLIFT AND ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER!

IT DOESN’T MATTER IF IT’S IN SPORTS, IN BUSINESS, IN RELATIONSHIPS!!

YOU CAN CREATE THAT MOMENTUM OF POSITIVITY IN YOUR OWN LIFE  BY ENCOURAGING OTHERS!

DON’T FORGET TO PAY IT FORWARD!!!

ADAM HOLLAND
http://www.adam-holland.com/

Now, yes, the above video is more ‘motivational’ than ‘instructional’.. you will need BOTH… but your business MULTIPLIES when people in your group are also learning what to do and applying it as fast as possible…

Are you still attending training seminars that go over the same crap that you heard the month before and the month before that? Are they STILL going over ‘the basics’? And the funny thing is… chances are ‘the basics’ are the same methods that they taught 20 years ago that just DON’T APPLY ANYMORE!

Seriously, if you want to learn some REAL… PROVEN… and CUTTING-EDGE methods to grow your business… check out www.Explode-My-Business.com…

I created over 250 leads my first month using these modern techniques… If you had to meet people in the mall and at the local bookstores, how long would that take you? 6 months? A year? And then you’ve got to call them up, book appointments, show presentations, schedule and meetup AGAIN for a follow up, build a list, make more calls… blah blah blah…

Those 250 leads went to one of my sites… they got info, and some took the next step… and some didn’t… Some people got started, and some didn’t… just like in your business… The beauty of it is this… I didn’t even SPEAK to them until they showed interest… Do you know what’s so priceless about that?! I didn’t deal with any face-to-face rejection… I didn’t get walked all over, I didn’t get ‘no-showed’, and I didn’t have to deal with some negative moron at a meeting… Thank God I learned these techniques…

If you asked anyone early on in the season if the Giants would go to the Big Show, everyone would’ve said ‘not a chance’…

Plagued with injuries, a not-so-confident QB, a sloppy secondary, and up-and-down coach, and more… they were just simply NOT in the running… But they turned things around and fought for every year to come up with a ton of big wins…

After the game, Coach Tom Coughlin said that it was their character and teamwork that pulled them together for these big victories…  The team definitely has the talent, but I saw so many of the players (especially Manning – who was supposed to be the offense’s leader) walking around with his head down.  For the first few games of the season they lost because they thought like they had already lost…

The Giants became great when they started to THINK and ACT great… then and only then did the magic start to happen on the football field…  When each teammate started to encourage and empower each other for success, they started to succeed.

We see examples like this so often in sports… and it should remind us in life and in business to always encourage and empower each other in everything we do.

What does that mean? Well, there are very few things in this world that you can control, but one of them is your thoughts. If something bad happens to you, and you get pissed off… you need to realize that your temper temporarily controlled you… your thought process was NOT in control. If something bad happens to you, and you recognize you have a CHOICE to how you respond… then you are aware of your thoughts. And you can control what you say and do.

If you want to control your bank account, family life, career, and your entire future… you must first take control of your own thoughts. Stay positive and enthusiastic, and start working diligently towards your goals.

Man, does that quote just speak to you!?  I really needed to hear that today.  I’ve got a to do list that reads like a grocery list.  I could spend all day worrying about what is going to get done, and what’s going to be left over.   I could just spend all of today organizing tomorrow.  But there’s one problem with that.

When you spend all of your day in worry, thought, or planning… you’re not getting anything done.

I spent alot of days doing this because I didn’t know how to prioritize correctly.  Planning should take less than 5-10% of your day.  The rest should be taking action.  Action is what will get you to your goal.  And worrying about your obstacles won’t move them out of the way or give you the ability to plow right through them.

What made the difference to me was when I realized that I needed to be aware of my attitude at all times. When I got a flat tire, when I pulled a muscle, when I spilled a drink, when anything didn’t go the way I wanted it to… I would throw a temper-tantrum just like a little kid. Maybe not out in the open, maybe not physically, but my brain would speak to me in that childish tone. I would whine to myself, driving my blood pressure up, creating unneeded stress and anxiety, saying “Woe is me!”

Now, when obstacles come in my way it becomes easy to maintain a good attitude. Why? Two reasons: 1.) because I am aware of my thoughts and have complete control over them, and 2.) I know where I am going and I refuse to let a bad attitude get in the way of me and my dreams.

That’s it. Period.

When you have the faith that you can overcome anything, the little obstacles don’t seem to matter anymore.

If you knew 100% that you were going to be a successful actor, but you were living out of you car at the time, would you keep a positive attitude? Jim Carrey did it.

If you knew you were going to become a famous rock star, but your current job was a grave digger, would you keep a positive attitude? Rod Stewart did it.

Jerry Seinfeld sold light bulbs by phone. Brad Pitt moved refrigerators.

Stephen King was a janitor. The list goes on and on.

It doesn’t matter where you are right now. Get a dream, maintain a good attitude, and get to work. Your future is waiting for you. Don’t miss it.