What is my purpose? The Last Thing I Want To Do Is Hurt People

This is Part 3 in my “I Quit” Series of Blog Posts. You can find the previous two entries (“I Quit, Part 1″ and “Death of the Infoslut” by clicking here.

In my last post (the tantalizingly named “Death of The Info Slut”) I laid out the drastic steps I’ve been taking to cut down my nasty addiction to useless information (did you know Cher had $145,000.00 in plastic surgery? I DID. How messed up is that?)

Now that I’ve (mostly) got my crazy info addiction and “chicken with no head” tendencies under control, it’s time to really focus on what I want to be doing, who I want to be doing it with and what I ultimately want to be known for.

I started thinking about this concept of “Significance” and “Purpose” a lot late last year. I even had long conversations about it with friends and mentors like Ray Edwards, Jeff Walker, Robert Murgatroyd (who I once famously SAVAGED in a video on this blog) and others.

Ultimately I ended up doing two major assignments that helped me get a LOT of clarity on who I “AM” and what I want to “BE.” Whenever I feel like myself getting tempted by big dollar signs or unfulfilling projects I come back to these assignments and ask myself “Am I heading towards or away from my goals?”

Assignment One: “Describe Your Perfect Day”

The first assignment was from Murgatroyd (GOD, I love that name) and was really simple.

I asked Rob to help me “Design my life” and he said:

Write out what your perfect day would look like. A day that you could live over and over again.

Dig deep. Start with the part that’s after you slept with the entire Swedish volley ball team.”

Here’s what I sent him back:

I wake up around 7 next to my lover.

I let her sleep a bit longer and marvel at the wide, satisfied smile on her face. I gaze out the window at a breathtaking view of the cascades and think “what do I want to do today?”

And I laugh a little because that really is the only question. I don’t HAVE TO do anything. There are no phone calls on my calendar, there are no meetings I need to go to, there are no errands to run. If I wanted to I could “opt out” of the whole day, lay in bed and make love.

But I get out of bed anyway and pad my way barefoot to share in a visceral, sweaty yoga class with friends and my favorite teacher. After yoga I have a healthy breakfast (prepared by someone else) and, if I feel like it, hop on the computer to do some focused thinking and work.

The projects I’m working on are fantastically fulfilling personally. I’m doing work that I find interesting, that challenges me and that also puts my greatest gifts and genius to their best use. I don’t have to do ANYTHING I don’t want to do in my work. I brainstorm, come up with strategy, do some writing and then send everything off to be handled by other people who do the actual implementation.

The afternoon is free and open for personal interests. I can spend it reading a book, studying hypnosis and persuasion methods, taking a class, getting certified as a yoga teacher or whatever else really pulls me. I’m able to follow my bliss without worry about chasing down clients or work. I know that every moment of effort I put into my business will pay me back 100 fold.

In the late afternoon my girl and I get back together. She’s in a great mood because she’s living a life similar to mine. No “Job” . . .no “Boss” . . .  and even better, no sense of jealousy or feeling that we should be doing more.

In the evening I catch up with friends. Maybe play some music. Dance or do something else that fills the soul. Late at night my girl and I cuddle up. We make sweet, passionate and maybe even a little angry love.

And then we fall asleep blissful feeling how SLOOOW time can be when you do it right. There are no “Whiny” people in my life. I know that everything I do has a positive impact on those around me. I am jealous of no one.”

Writing is fun.

Assignment 2: What’s Your “Definite Major Purpose?”

My second assignment was something I picked up from my buddy Jason Van Orden.

If you don’t know Jason, you should. He’s an astonishingly nice guy, a heck of a guitar player and one of the more focused and legitimately HAPPY people I’ve ever met.

Jason, along with his partner Sterling, runs the excellent “Internet Business Mastery” podcast.

If you go to the “IBM” website you can download a pretty damn spiffy “Lifestyle Design Worksheet” that Jay and Sterling put together.

Step 1 on the LDW is to figure out your “Major Definite Purpose.”

Here’s a brief description (from the worksheet) of what your “Definite Major Purpose” is:

Honestly this is the most important thing you can figure out, not only for business, but for your personal life. Allof your decisions will be very simple once you know what your Definite Major Purpose is. Here are some questions to help you design your DMP.

* Why am I here?

* What is the top purpose for my life?

* What fulfills me above all other things?

Chris’s DMP

Freedom

• Freedom to live a life without compromise. (Money makes this possible.)
• Freedom to say “No” to projects quickly and with no regrets.
• Freedom from jealousy, financial and otherwise. I am doing what I should be doing irregardless of what others do or how much they make.
• Freedom to only work on projects that I find personally fulfilling.
• Freedom to live 100% as my genuine self with no regard for what other people might think of me, what might “Get out” or fear of “repercussions.”
• Freedom to make my own schedule.

Fulfillment/Significance

• Constantly learning new and interesting things.
• Teaching and inspiring others both formally and through my actions.
• Living a life of integrity (according to my own definition.)
• Being a prolific creator who spends as much time as possible in my “Zone of Genius.”
• Creating as much pleasure and removing as much pain from those around me as possible (Unless they’re assholes, then they get what they deserve.)
• Surround myself with passionate, fulfilled people who push me to greater heights.
• Fill my days with a variety of people in experiences. Never be “Bored.”

Inspiration

• I inspire people around me to be the best they can be.
• People in my personal life look to me for advice and inspiration and I give it freely.

Recognition

• To most I’m a stranger, to those who matter I’m a star.
• Be known and respected in whatever field I decide to excel in.

If you get the chance, I highly recommend you go through both of these exercises. They’re eye opening.

(Tangentially: following the principles from these two exercises has led me to turn down quite a few projects, jobs and “opportunities” over the last few weeks. There’s a lot of power in saying “No.”)

If you’ve read my “Death of the Info Slut” article (and according to my blog stats a lot of you have) then you know I’m doing some major changes to the way I structure my day and live my life.

My good friend Kim says that I’m “Living with a startling amount of intention.”

Currently I’m working on a new “Mantra” . . . something I can mumble to myself or speak clearly in my mind anytime I feel overwhelmed, like I need to rush or otherwise stressed. (I hate that feeling.)

Here are the options. Tell me which one you like best and why:

1. “There are plenty of hours in the day.”

Pretty straightforward. Nice counterpoint to the standard “there aren’t enough hours in the day” bit.

2. “There are more than enough hours in the day.”

My gut tells me this might be the better option. It’s a more literal reaction to the “Not enough” line and somehow feels more “abundant” and “calm” than the “plenty” line.

3. There are too manyhours in the day.
Heh. Probably not. But it sounds pretty amazing to have that problem.

4-6. Basically the same as 1-3 but append “(To do what’s important)” on the end.

So “There are plenty of hours in the day (to do what’s important.),” “There are more than enough hours in the day (to do what’s important)” and (strangely) “There are too many hours in the day (to do what’s important.)”

There’s a certain strange brilliance to that last one, but I don’t think it’s what I’m going for.

I'm too lazy to edit this. But just pretend it says "Info Slut."

This is part 2 in my “I Quit” series of blog posts. You can see the first post here. In today’s post I go into my RIDICULOUS addiction to information and how I’ve started putting systems into place to deal with it.

My name is Chris Haddad and I’m an info addict . . .

Actually, that’s wrong. I’m not an info “addict.” I’m an info SLUT . . .

Ask my friends, (ex) girlfriends, family members, enemies and even some of my clients and they’ll tell you that I’ll give my attention away to ANYTHING . . .

Latest news about Brad and Angelina and how they’re relationship is being SHATTERED by Brad’s secret affair with his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston?

I’m in.

80 page Wikpedia entries on the development, translation and ratings of the classic 1980’s cartoon series “The Smurfs?”

Oh, please, more.

“Stereo-instruction-exciting” pamphlets about prostate health?

SURE!

Issues of Cosmo, out of date public health warnings, half-burned magazines, political dribble . . .

I’ll take it!!

Really, whatever you got . . .whatever was within arm’s reach I’d DEVOUR it like a horny 14 year old who finally found his Dad’s “secret stash” of Playboy issues . . . .

Heck, I’d read it IN PUBLIC, while surrounded by friends, while at the movies, while playing board games, while riding on a roller coaster, while on a (inevitably bad) date . . .

It was bad . . .

And you know what? I don’t think it’s overstating it to say that my info-sluthood cost me A LOT . . .

It cost me relationships . . . took piles of money out of my pocket . . . kept me from personal achievements and goals . . . and ripped away a LOT of my time . . .

A LOT . . .

It got so bad that my ex used to take my iPhone away from me before we’d go to a party . . .

Where good friends would MOCK ME MERCILESSLY every time they saw me going off into “Haddad Land” . . .

And where I felt downright ASHAMED of my behavior . . . and powerless in the face of my sluthood.

So when I decided a week ago to “quit my job” . . . and to (in line with my re-reading of Tim Ferris’ “Four Hour Work Week”) DRASTICALLY reduce my info intake, I knew I was going to have a hard time of it . . .

I knew I was going to have WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS . . .

That I was going to be TEMPTED by the vicious bitch of info overload . . .

And that I was going to have to put SYSTEMS in place to keep me honest

Now, as I’m writing this I’m about 10 days into my “reform” . . .

My attempts to become a “Born Again Info Virgin.”

And you know what? So far it’s going pretty well.

Right now I have NO IDEA what’s going on with Brad and Angie (don’t tell me.)

I haven’t a CLUE what’s happening in the world of Pro Wrestling (that’s a weird one. I haven’t actually WATCHED professional wrestling in about a decade, but somehow got into the habit of keeping up with the backstage news EVERY DAY.)

And, honestly, I don’t really know what’s going on in national or local politics either. For the first time in YEARS my brain feels more or less “empty” and it’s GREAT.

So how’d I come this far in such a short amount of time?

Great question. Let me lay out how I “Killed” (or at least severely crippled) my inner info slut in record time.

Step 1: Admit You Have A Problem

OK, this sounds pretty basic, but it’s important. Step one was just admitting (to myself and to others) that I’ve got a BIG problem.

And I’ll admit it right here. For me, information is a “drug.” I get “high” by “knowing stuff” or even just by reading stuff.

That I’m POWERLESS in the face of random pieces of news. Once I admitted that and stopped feeling like I should just be able to “ignore this stuff” it got a lot easier.

Step 2: The Chemical Route

I don’t want to go too deep into this topic here, but a big part of my info slut “reform” was going to a doctor and using chemicals to “turn down the noise” in my

Makes a point . . . but for me the drugs really do work.

brain. As I write this I’ve been on 60 mg of Straterra for about 2 months now with pretty staggering results.

As I told my friends “Wow, this is what it’s like to only have one song in your head at a time.”

Going on ADHD drugs did a lot to “slow down” my brain and keep me from being utterly bored all the time. But ultimately it only got me halfway there. After years and years of “overloading” my brain on a daily basis in order to avoid having to actually DO something I had some pretty damned ingrained HABITS that needed to be addressed.

Step 3: Buy A Watch

This one sounds weird, but one of the biggest steps I took to help me get over my “info-sluthood” was to buy a watch.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t owned a watch in YEARS (since I first got a cell phone.)

I bought a cool leather-cuff watch from Fossil about a month ago for 3 main reasons . . .

1. It let’s me leave my iPhone at home or at the office and still know what time it is. (Seriously.)

2. Even when I have my phone with me, I can find out what time it is without looking at my phone. When my phone was my only way of telling what time it was, it gave me an easy excuse to “go down the rabbit hole.” I’d check the time and “just quickly check my email,” log on to some kind of news site or find some other way to feed my hungry mind.

With the watch I can leave my phone buried in my pocket or in my bag . . . out of sight, out of mind.

3. The “Feeling” of the watch on my wrist is a constant reminder to “be good.”
This is more of a “subtle” thing, but having the watch on my wrist is a lot like tying a piece of string around my finger. It gives me a subtle, tactical reminder not to give in to my “Sluthood.” Not enough to do the job by itself, but a nice piece of the holistic pie.

Step 4: Don’t Put Coke In Front of A Coke Addict

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been slowly going through Tim Ferris’ “The Four Hour Work Week” again. And this time around I’ve been trying something “weird” . . . I’ve been actually doing what the book says.

A big section of “4HWW” has to do with REDUCING your info intake (drastically) so you can focus like a laser on being a prolific creator and getting in and out of “work mode” as quickly as possible.

Now personally, I’m a very STUBBORN guy, but I don’t have a lot of willpower.  I’m kind of a boundary-ignoring hedonist. If you put 13 cupcakes in front of me I’ll eat all 13 and then lick the napkins.

And if I’ve got CONSTANT, EASY access to information I’m going to consume all that too. (Just ask my friends.)

So what I decided to do was “NERF” my laptop and my (precious, precious) iPhone . . . I needed to make it easier NOT to consume massive amounts of “junk food for the brain” than it is to do so.

Nerfing The Laptop

Rescuetime is an awesome piece of free software that tracks your productivity.

1. Make productivity “a game.”

The first thing I did (per Tim’s recommendation) was download and install Rescuetime on my mac. (http://www.rescuetime.comt)

Rescuetime is a nifty little piece of software that tracks HOW you use your computer (and your web browser) and gives you graphs and stats on how much time you’re spending in each piece of software and on what kind of website.

(I’m ashamed to say that my Facebook, gossip site and IM time was MASSIVE when I first started.)

If you’re in the marketing world (on any world) you should know that “What’s measured improves.” The “guilt” of knowing that every second I spent chatting with a friend about “how dumb Marvel comics are these days” was going to end up on my weekly report put a major fire under my butt to actually pay attention and be productive.

This is what Leechblock does to sites you set it to block. I see this screen a lot.

2. Kill My Web browser

OK, this one was hard. I knew from “watching myself work” that I would typically spend at least half of my “productive” hours “checking just one more website” and shoveling crap into my brain.

In 4HWW Tim recommends a Firefox plugin called Leechblock . . .

This is a really nifty piece of software that can be used to either totally block or selectively control access to certain websites.

I immediately went into Leechblock and set it to TOTALLY block my biggest “Sin” sites . . . sites like (I’m ashamed to say) Perez Hilton, What Would Tyler Durden Do, Pro Wrestling Torch and a few others.

These were sites that were total “junk” for me, that added no actual joy or value to my life and that were just sapping away my precious time, energy and attention.

I also set Leechblock to enforce strict time limits on other sites. Currently I’ve got it to allow me 15 minutes of Facebook time every 24 hours. (Strangely, that can feel like a LOT of time if you just log in for a second or two to chat) and put similar rules up for things like Gmail, Google news, certain online comics I like to read etc.

Originally I was looking for a way to similarly nerf Safari (since having one nerfed browser and one “open” browser wasn’t going to work . . . I’d just end up browsing in the open browser and “cheating” on my info diet..)

I found a way to block sites in Safari by going into terminal and editing the “hosts” file on my computer, but ultimately it didn’t give me the flexibility I wanted so I ended up just deleting Safari off my machine entirely. Not good for checking how web sites work in different browsers but great for actually getting stuff done.

3. Set up Autoresponders to say I’m only checking work email twice per day (and actually STICK to it.)

Email is the bane of my existence. Like a rat in a cage I keep hitting that damn button and waiting for a food pellet to plop down into my lap. Especially when I’m out in the world with my iPhone.

Unfortunately, more often than not checking my email makes me MISERABLE.

It’s pretty rare that really GOOD news comes out of email, and the number of people writing me with “emergencies” or with news that I couldn’t (or shouldn’t) act on right away but that would bug me anyway was ridiculous.

So, per the 4HWW again, I set up my two main work email accounts to send out an AR saying I’d only check messages twice a day (usually at Noon and 4PM) and made a resolution to actually stick to it.

And you know what? So far, so good. By making myself not check my work email before noon everyday I find that my morning hours are ridiculously productive. In fact, I’ve managed to “Finally get to” several products and sales videos I’ve been meaning to write for MONTHS.

This little icon sits on my Dock and gives me magical powers of internet homicide.

4. Discover “Freedom.”

This is the biggest thing that’s contributed to my radical increase in productivity over the last couple weeks.

In “4HWW” Tim recommends a tiny (and free) program called “Freedom.” Freedom was developed by a grad student as a way to give you back your “freedom” from the tyranny of email and web browsing.

“Freedom” does just one thing (and does it really, really well.

Click the icon in your dock and Freedom brings up a dialogue box asking you how many minutes of “Freedom” you want (up to 480 minutes / 8 hours.) Once you hit “OK” and enter your password you’re officially locked out of access to the internet. No email, no web browsing, no chatting, no nothing.

I find it kind of funny that I’m in love with a piece of software that STOPS me from doing something, but have been amazed at how much calmer I feel as soon as I start the software up.

Suddenly all that mental “pressure” fades away and I can let myself actually focus on high-value, high-income projects without wondering about email, chat or crappy celebrity news. Highly recommended.

OK, my iPhone isn't "dead" but it is crippled. Gleefully so.

DIE iPHONE DIE

I remember a couple years ago I dropped my old iPhone in soup. At the time I thought it was both hilarious and tragic . . . but mostly hilarious.

For the next couple months I was iPhone-free, forced to use a crappy “single function” backup phone that didn’t do anything but phone calls.

It was great, but when the iPhone 3G came out, I caved and picked one up.

When I decided to “De-slut” myself I knew I had to figure out a way to Nerf my phone too. It’s just too easy with the iPhone to spend hours digging around Wikipedia, spin myself in circles waiting for email or otherwise find ways to “disengage” from the world. And even after getting on the ADHD drugs (which helped a LOT) I’d still find myself getting bored and going off into info land every chance I goh.

My current iPhone usage is far from perfect (I’m addicted to this block moving game) but I’ve managed to radically reduce the amount of time I spend on the thing.

Here’s how:

1. Remove Web Surfing From The iPhone

Originally I just wanted to find a way to block selected websites on my iPhone. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem like a possibility so I had to get more drastic and completely remove my access to my iPhone’s web browser.

Doing so was easy (though I needed a buddy to make it happen.)

Go to Settings>General>Restrictions

You’ll see a list of programs and settings you can “Restrict” on the iPhone. I think originally this was cerated so parents could keep their kids from accessing porn and Republican talking points on the phone . . . but it works well for “addicts and sluts” like me too.

I set Safari to be “restricted” on my iPhone and then had my office mate Tim enter a “secret code” to keep the damn thing locked out.

Tim then entered the “secret code” into a doc on my laptop and tucked it away in the annals of my laptop.

This way the only way for me to “Unrestrict” my web browser is to find that document on my laptop (I think I remember what folder it’s in) and enter the restriction code. (Or to completely reformat my iPhone.)

But Chris, doesn’t that completely ruin the use of your iPhone?

Eh. A little. I can still do maps and GPS on the phone, text, make phone calls and use apps. The apps are actually dangerous since it’s easy to get apps that let you on wikipedia and the like. I’d probably give myself a 70/100 for actually sticking to the program on this, but I’m definitely less of a “phone addict” than I was before.

2. Cut down access to email.

Finally I removed my moneyfingersinc.com and haddadink.com from my iPhone completely. If I’m going to cut my work email access down to just twice a day (or once a day more often then not) then there’s no reason to be hitting the mail button every 5 minutes on my phone.

Now I still DO check my personal Gmail account on my phone (and I do so too much.)

Ideally I’d like to remove the Mail program from my iPhone entirely, but I can’t find any way to do that without Jailbreaking the phone. Suckage. If you have suggestions on that, let me know.

The Results

So there you go. Am I a “born again info virgin” yet?

Eh. Probably not. I get “weak” at times and start surfing through endgadget or Joystiq, but overall I’m doing MUCH better than I was before.

My brain feels “freer” than it has in a looong time, I’m able to focus more on work projects (and on the awesome people in front of me) and I find my moods to be a bit more stable . . .less prone to spiraling off in different directions every time I read a piece of noise.

I hate to say it, but so far ignorance really is bliss.

Now, there is a counterargument that as a “upstanding citizen” of this fine country I should be interested and informed about what’s going on in local and national politics and at what kind of news items are flying across the public consciousness. But I’m not buying it. The really important stuff is still going to get to me. And I know a lot of really intelligent, info-overloaded people who can fill me in at a moment’s notice.

Not too long ago folks had to wait DAYS or even WEEKS to find out what was going on around the world. And they did just fine.

And I’m becoming “Addicted” to the amount of writing, thinking and CREATION I can do now that the “pipes” of my big powerful mind aren’t all clogged up with crap.d.

I’ll keep you in the know on how it goes. And if you want to join me, leave a comment below.

That’s it, I quit.

As of right now, right here in front of everybody (with you, dear reader, as my witness and my friend) I’m officially quitting my job.

That probably sounds weird.

I mean, can you really quit your job when your unemployed?

Can you really quit your “job” when you haven’t actually HAD a job for over 5 years?

Way back in 2005 I got laid off from a gig writing sappy animal-based greeting cards for a living . . .

It was a BAD gig. The owners (Pat and Gabe) were a couple of old married farts who treated their employees like their children (just not like children who they actually liked) and who were prone to random insults and screaming rages at the drop of something that gets dropped a lot . . .

One by one we employees either quit, got fired or got “laid off” . . . and one by one we all went to the state and reported the place as a “Hostile work environment.”

When it was my turn to face the axe I had a bit of a nervous breakdown.

Actually, I did more than that. I sat in my car in the parking lot and cried, cried, cried like a puppy who cries a lot.

After all, there I was, 26-years old, unemployed, unemployable, no sellable skills, no real ambitions and about as much accumulated self worth as you can fit on a postage stamp.

I was in a bad way.

And it got worse a week later.

That’s when I “Intercepted” an email from Pat (the crazier and meaner of my two bosses)  telling a vendor that I hadn’t been laid off after all . . .

“Chris has had to take a leave of absence,” read Pat’s strange, lying email. “First because of his upcoming wife’s West Nile virus, but now because of his own upcoming MRI.”

When I read that I had a fit.

I raged to my girlfriend of the time (we weren’t getting married, I didn’t have a brain tumor but I think I came close to a heart attack after reading that email.)

It’s like something deep in the core of me just SNAPPED . . .

Like all those years of slumping from crappy, badly-paying job to crappy, badly-paying job had finally worn through to my soul.

So right then and there  I made a resolution  that I would NEVER work for anybody else again.

That I would NEVER have to put my fate in the hands of some megalomaniacal whack job with a smokers gasp and a bad haircut.

And from there things went pretty well.

I started doing that “copywriting” thing, mostly working for corporate clients at first (and making piddling amounts of moolah barely enough to pay the rent.)

And then about 3 years ago I stumbled on this “Direct Response Copywriting” thing and wham, bam, WHAMMO, WOW did things change.

Suddenly $20k and even $30k months became the NORM (my total salary at my last “real job” was just $24,000.00 a year . . . I lived LEAN.)

Suddenly I was hot-shotting around the country in big flying machines, hobnobbing with millionaires, getting asked for advice from GIANTS of the industry and cranking out sales copy for the biggest and the best.

For a while there it was FUN.

It was like a video game where the keyboard was my shotgun and customers were the endless zombie hordes. All I had to do was pull the trigger, line up the conversions and I’d be rewarded with big fat checks that I didn’t even really know what to do with.

Suddenly I had a “name” and was on a pretty short list of copywriters to call when the copy had to be hot and sizzling and the conversions had to be through the roof.

But lately . . . well, lately I haven’t been having as much fun.

For every project that thrills and fulfills me and makes me do backflips of joy there have been five more that I take because I feel like I “have to” . . . because the money is “too good” or because I feel like I’m supposed to be chasing down wealth like a horny werewolf on prom night.

And for the last year or so that aspect of my gig (there’s a lot of other stuff that I actually really like) has begun to wear me down.

Too many whackjobs calling me up offering me “$4 Billion Dollars if you are to use your magic fingers of moneymaking to help me sell my wonderful idea.” (True story.)

Too many “Big dreamers” wondering why I can’t see THE BRILLIANCE OF THEIR BUSINESS IDEA and WHY WON’T YOU WRITE THIS FOR ME FOR FREE?

Too many scammers, too many demons, too many fools.

Too many days spent in a non-productive haze, bouncing from Facebook to Twitter to my latest writing project, to the blog to the phone trying to eke out just a LITTLE BIT of productivity and feeling (at the end of it all) that I’m no closer to my actual goal.

Over the last year or so (and it’s been a HARD year here in Haddonia, full of heartbreak and shame and experiences I would only wish on my worst enemies.) . . .

Over the last year or so the way I do “business” has begun to feel way too much like a JOB.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 32 years it’s that I’m BAD at having jobs. I’ve been fired or laid off from every JOB I had (and with good reason). So I’m going to jump the gun and quit this one while I can.

So let me say it again, this time in French so my Canadian friends can understand . . .

“J’ai stoppe’”

Now, does this mean I’m getting out of the “marketing game?”

Am I going to go join a monastery and take up Flamenco guitar?

Nope. Fact is I really LIKE selling stuff.

I’m just going to be a LOT more selective about who I sell stuff FOR . .  .

About how I get PAID for what I help sell . . .

About what KIND of stuff I sell (no more crap in a box, kids.)

And I’m going to spend as much of my time, effort and energy as possible building up my own businesses, websites and assets so I can finally get off the “where’s the next project” hamster wheel for real and actually RELAX, focus on my passions enjoy myself while I’m still pretty young.

In other words, I’m going to stop building a “job,” eliminate the “fear” that’s been plaguing me for the last couple years and start building the lifestyle business I’ve wanted all along.

Like a whole lot of other people, I’m using Tim Ferris’ excellent book “The Four Hour Work Week” as my guidepost for this.

This is the first in a series of posts I’ll be writing as I dig into Ferris’ book “for real” (I read it the first time several years back with little impact), call in my friends to be on my “advisory board,” radically reduce self-limiting and procrastibatury behaviors and charge as hard as I can towards the lifestyle I want.

It’s gonna be fun. Come along for the ride.

Tune in in a couple days for my next post: “Death of the Info Slut.”