Category: Mindset

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Why Going Into Debt For A Degree Isn’t Smart

The cost of going to a university these days has gotten out of control. I am still trying to figure out how universities have been able to get away with what they charge.

Current federal student loan debt in the US is above $1.5 trillion. Trillion with a T. I value education as much as the next person. One thing I don’t agree with is the fact that it’s the only way. We live in a day and age where the answer to any question is at your fingertips. Ever heard of a thing called Google? It is cool. I recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

Why Results Matter More Than A Piece Of Paper

I bring this up because I am a firm believer that education is important, but action and results matter more. I have hired individuals from MIT and Harvard. When you hear these schools, I am sure your mind immediately goes to top level talent. Which is true in most cases. What most tend to forget though is a degree shows you have book smarts. A degree doesn’t show you will be able to make it in the real world. I ended up having to performance manage the MIT grad out. They struggled to translate the book smarts into solving real world problems.

I learned a lot from this mistake. I had a sense of excitement after hiring the MIT grad. I thought they were going to come in and crush the game with little oversight. Boy was I wrong.

Lesson Learned From A Degree

This is the fundamental lesson I learned from this. A piece of paper is just that. A piece of paper. A piece of paper saying you received a degree from a top program means a few things:

  1. You must have some degree of book smarts, or you are good at cheating haha
  2. You more than likely spent a large sum of money to get that piece of paper. There are many scenarios where you received a full ride for academics.
  3. You more than likely believe having this piece of paper will get you a high paying job. Eh.

This piece of paper does not dictate whether you will be successful in the real world. There are hundreds of individuals graduating from top universities each year. This simple fact won’t make them successful.

What Makes Successful People

I would take experience and results over a piece of paper. Any day. No questions asked. There are three main things in my eyes that I look for:

  1. Having a strong work ethic
  2. Ability to solve difficult problems
  3. Ability to interact with people and influence them to do the things you want

In my eyes, you must have a combination of these three things to be successful. I could go on for hours about what success means. That is not the point of this article.

Key Takeaways:

  • A college degree doesn’t mean you will be successful. Understand whether a college degree is necessary for what you are trying to do. Going to college and coming out with a large amount of debt is not a smart thing to do.
  • Results matter more than anything. Results in this sense being progress towards a goal.
  • Work hard, solve difficult problems and be able to influence others. Any piece of information you want is at your fingertips. Google. Smart Phones. Technology. Gotta love it.
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Become The Master of Your Fate

“If you realize your creative power – if you assume responsibility for the seeds and soil of your inner garden – then you become the master of your fate.” James Allen, As A Man Thinkith

Time to diagnose this quote in two different segments.

Realizing Your Creative Power

A few months ago, I heard of a study that wanted to better understand individuals creativity. The study looked at 4 different groups of people. The goal of the study was to see which of the four groups could come up with the most creative solution to a problem.

The different groups were:

  1. NASA scientists
  2. Ivy league grads
  3. High school students
  4. Kindergarteners

Could you guess which group came up with the most creative solution? If you guessed the NASA scientists, you would be wrong. If you guessed the Ivy league grads, you would also be wrong. The High school students? Nope.

That’s right. Of these four groups, the kindergarteners developed the most creative solution. Why? The study determined a major key being age. Age can’t have that big of an impact though can it? When they dug deeper, they found the main reason to be the fact the kindergarteners had not had their minds brainwashed to think a certain way. The kindergartners had not gone through years of schooling being told to think a certain way. This allowed their minds to continue to think of limitless possibilities.

Limiting Beliefs

Have you ever thought about schooling being a way for individuals to force you to think a certain way? I hadn’t either. Now I am by no means saying the government is controlling how you think…let’s not go down some crazy rabbit hole. Here is what I mean. In school, you learn the difference of being correct versus being incorrect. We learn how we need to answer questions to get a good grade. Our thoughts end up conforming to thinking how we are being “trained” to think.

This is why the kindergarteners have a wild imagination full of creativity. Their minds are still young. They haven’t gone through years of someone telling them how to think to get a good grade. This allows them to think the world has endless possibilities. Ask a kindergartener to look up at the sky, ask them what they see. You will get some wild answers. Ask a college grad what they see, and you will get some basic answer. Interesting thought.

Taking Responsibility Of Your Fate

Have you ever wondered why you are where you are? Let’s say you are working the classic W2 job. Dread every Monday morning when you have to start a new week. Looking forward to every Friday to go out and party on the weekend.

Watch this video right now. If you haven’t seen this, it is incredible. Great quote from this video: “What if I told you this was the last Monday of your life?” Watch the video to get a little motivation and full story.

The main point from the video is to take control of your life. You get to make more choices in this life than you lead yourself to believe. Nobody is forcing you to work that 9-5 job you hate. Nobody is forcing you to spend all time outside of work sitting in front of the TV. Nobody is forcing you to spend money on material things you don’t need.

Think about where you are in your life. Are you taking control of your fate? Want to try and push yourself to the next level? Checkout this previous post I had on having a Miracle Morning each morning. Push yourself to grow.

Key Takeaways:

#Thoughts#Insight #Wisdom #Mindful#Thinking #Health #Mindset#WisdomWednesday #Money#Mission #Power

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TheYoungRetireeBy33’s Miracle Morning – How to Supercharge Each Day!

Finally time to complete Part III of my Miracle Morning posts!

I hope you have received some value to this point from the first two posts! It’s now time to detail through my Miracle Morning! If you haven’t had a chance to read either of the first two posts, here they are!

Part I – How I Found The Miracle Morning

Part II – It Begins The Night Prior!

Now, time to get into the Miracle Morning! Your Miracle Morning should be tailored to what works best for you. I am going to detail what I have found to work well for me. This has evolved over the course of a year. I also recommend to keep things fresh and mix it up every once in a while.

Beginning of The Miracle Morning:

Before beginning my Miracle Morning, I wake up, drink a full glass of water followed by brushing my teeth. Here is a little trick to get your brain working early in the morning. Brush your teeth with the opposite hand. This helps kick in your motor functions early in the morning and gets your brain to think. A small tip I have learned 🙂 now we are ready.

Silence (5-10 minutes)

I start every morning with meditation. For this, I use an app called ‘Insight Timer’. There are many reasons I enjoy Insight Timer and there are also a lot of other apps that will do the same trick. I have found Insight Timer to work well as all the meditations are free. Insight Timer has meditations specific to jump starting your morning. Those are the ones I focus on. I try to keep to only listening to morning meditations that last 5-10 minutes. I will open the Insight Timer, prop up some pillows on the bed, begin the meditation, and try to quiet the mind. Quieting the mind has been the most challenging thing for me to do. My mind races throughout the entire day. I have found performing meditation in the morning has helped to focus my mind to begin each day. Not to painful to wake up and do nothing right? Okay, now for step two.

Affirmations (5-10 minutes)

What are affirmations you might wonder? I wondered the same thing before learning of the Miracle Morning. Everything that we say to ourselves out loud or in our thoughts can be an affirmation. There are many different types of affirmations. To make things simple for myself, I used the free affirmation sheet provided by Hal at http://www.tmmbook.com. Checkout his website and he will email you copies of exactly what I read.

Once you have the affirmation document, and read through it, this will make a little more sense. Affirmations have reinforced positive thoughts and actions for me. Now time for step three.

Visualization (5-10 minutes)

I won’t lie, this is one I still struggle with each morning. I don’t even remember what I did at the beginning of each morning when I started this practice. Now, I focus on thinking in three different aspects.

First Focus: Where do I want to be in 5 years with my personal relationships, finances, and mission?

Second Focus: What do I plan on doing the next month, 6 months, and year to help get to the 5 year vision?

Third Focus: What do I plan on doing today to help me get to the 5 year vision.

Now time for step four.

Reading (10-15 minutes)

The first logical thing most would ask is, “What should I read?” Facebook posts? IG? Twitter feed? NOOOO! The reading segment of my Miracle Morning consists of reading a book. The book will usually be focused around personal development or investing. These are what currently interest me, but I would recommend you to find what interests you. Step five…here we go.

Scribing (5-10 minutes)

Scribing, or journaling, is a very key practice to perform each morning. I use the ‘Five Minute Journal’ each morning and evening.

The ‘Five Minute Journal’ helps to focus my mindset for the beginning of the day. Each morning you will turn the journal to the next page and input the date at the top. The first thing you read in the journal is a thoughtful quote or a Challenge for the Week. Next, I write down three things I am grateful for that morning. This can be anything. The main focus of this is to get your mind thinking thoughts of gratefulness. I then write down three things that would make the day great. Again, the main focus of this being mindset. The last thing I write is one affirmation.

I recommend purchasing the ‘Five Minute Journal’ as it is a great guide. It also has a great end of night journal entry. If you have any questions about it, feel free to reach out. Now time for the last step of the process.

Exercise (5-10 minutes)

The last thing I end my Miracle Morning with is a little exercise. Hundreds of studies have proven the benefits of getting blood flowing to your brain. For that reason, I end my Miracle Morning with 5 minutes of exercise. I recently started doing something a little bit different. I will do push ups till I can’t do a another one (right now up to 50-55 in a row) and I will then jump up to do 60 jumping jacks. I have found this to help stress my body and get the heart rate up.

Not too bad right? Yes this is a lot to do each morning, but I recommend performing these tasks. I have found doing these to increase my productivity every day.

Ways To Supercharge Your Miracle Morning

Here are a few ways I have found to take it the extra step further if you want to challenge yourself even more:

  1. Finish your Miracle Morning by taking a cold shower. Yes, you read that right. A cold shower. Are you brave enough to try? Most aren’t. I have started doing this and it has been awesome.
  2. Outside of setting up my meditation though Insight Timer, cut the need to look at any electronic screen. Remove all technology if possible.
  3. Focus on quieting the mind. Don’t let your mind race through your Miracle Morning. This practice is designed to be a time of clarity. Stop focusing on what is to come of the day.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Start each morning by drinking a full glass of water and brushing your teeth with the opposite hand.
  2. Find what works best for you. The above detail is the order I perform my Miracle Morning. This is not the only way to do it. Change the order you do things if you feel like it would work better for you that way.
  3. Taking charge of the first hour of the day is one of the most critical pieces to setting yourself up for a successful day ahead.