ETR Insider Report: It’s Time to Get Healthy
By Jessica Kurrle, ETR Marketing Associate
In ETR #2057, Michael Masterson wrote about a fitness challenge that one of his clients is implementing. Staff members team up to lose weight and get fit. And $1,000 will be awarded to the man, the woman, and the team that loses the highest percentage of body fat
Here at Early to Rise, eight people have committed to participating in a similar 12-week experiment. Last night, we met with our trainer, Coach Yari, for the first time. She took "before" pictures, gathered our measurements, and calculated our body-fat percentages.
To help us get started, she presented each of us with a grocery list and recommended eating plan, a six-minute mini-workout to do on the days we don’t meet with her, and a diary to record everything we eat. She will be looking over our food diaries every time we meet and making suggestions to help us achieve our weight-loss goals.
The purpose of keeping the food diary is that you may not realize how many bad eating habits you have until you write down everything you eat and drink. (This is something we have talked about before in ETR.) For instance, you may eat lean grilled meat for lunch and dinner, but if you wash it down with a sugary soda, you’re not eating well. And you may be surprised by all the little "harmless" snacks you munch on that are actually piling on the calories.
This is something you can do at home as part of your own fitness challenge: Monitor what you eat and use that record to make healthful changes.
During our initial meeting with Coach Yari, one of the first steps we took to help us measure our progress and keep us on track was to write down a "visualized" goal of how we want to look and feel at the end of the 12 weeks. This is another thing that you can do as part of your own at-home fitness challenge: Set a goal for where you’ll be at the end of your 12-week fitness regimen.
We are all excited to get started - and I, for one, am looking forward to the results we will see. We’ll keep you posted on our progress. And we hope you keep us posted on yours!
______________________________
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death."
Robert Fulghum
Don’t Let Not Knowing How to Do It Stop You
By Paul Lawrence
As I stepped into the casting office for my first professional audition as an actor, I was overwhelmed. The reception area was filled with gorgeous women and sharp-looking guys - and (unlike me) all of them had the air of confidence that comes with knowing exactly what they were doing.
Uncertainly, I caught one young man’s eye and asked if there was a place to sign in. He directed me to a table in the corner.
That was the easy part! I tapped my foot anxiously as, one by one, people were called into the back office for their auditions. I silently wondered if it would be obvious that I’d never auditioned before. "What am I doing here?"I thought. "I don’t belong here. I have no training, no experience. All of these other people are clearly professionals. How do I stand a chance?" I momentarily entertained the thought of dashing out the door.
But the same determination that drove me to that casting call took over. Being an actor had been a secret lifelong dream of mine. I’d wanted to audition for a role in a movie or TV show for years, but hadn’t gotten the guts to try until I reached my 30s.
Finally, my name was called.
Once in the audition room, a casting director gave me a scenario about being a crazy truck driver on a wild drive, and I was told to improvise some lines as they shot some footage.
After some still shots, the action began. It was quick and painless. Certainly not the best performance the casting director ever saw, but likely not the worst. I left without any fanfare.
I’d love to tell you that I received a call the next day, and the job was mine. But that’s not what happened. What did happen was that I turned that first day of overcoming my fears into five years of auditions. And along the way, I actually landed some parts.
I’ve had a few speaking roles in small films and a few brief moments on screen in a blockbuster titled Bad Boys II (where I had the good fortune to briefly hobnob - and actually exchange joking comments - with Will Smith, who was as nice as I’d heard he was). I’m proud to say I’ve got a listing on IMDB.com (the bible of the entertainment business) as an actor… which is not easy to come by.
The truth is, being an actor was never my main career goal. Sure, I’ve made money from it - but, more important, acting has added a layer to my life that has been emotionally rewarding. I certainly hope I achieve more as an actor - but even if I don’t, I have accomplished that lifelong dream.
The point I want to make here is that I achieved this goal without any formal training. Admittedly, I was intimidated by my lack of experience. It took some serious determination to follow through with it. But once I took that crucial step to overcome my fears and doubts, I was able to achieve a dream I’d had for years.
Perhaps you have a dream. Maybe you want to own your own company. Maybe you want to finally publish that novel you’ve been writing. Maybe you want to usher your garage band into the mainstream. And maybe you haven’t yet pursued that dream because you feel you’re missing something - the "right" kind of education or insider knowledge of the industry.
But I strongly urge you not to let "not knowing how to do it" stop you. You can learn all you need to know by simply going after what you want.
In my case as an aspiring actor, I hired a professional photographer to take head shots, and I put together a resume highlighting every relevant credential I could think of (and minimizing my lack of experience). I sent those things to local talent agencies that I found in directories. To my pleasant surprise, a few called me to come in and sign up. Shortly thereafter, one of them sent me on that first audition I described at the beginning of this article.
Enough about me…
Jenny T. recently made her dreams come true, even though she got a late start. Jenny, in her mid 60s, has had a secret ambition since she was a little girl to be a glamorous show dancer.
Her chances of making it to Broadway were slim to none - but that didn’t stop her from making a different version of her dream come true. Although Jenny never had any formal training as a dancer, she began to perform show routines for live audiences.
Along the way, she took lessons to improve her dancing skills. After a few years, Jenny is now a local celebrity. She’s performed dance routines for audiences of up to 500 people more than 25 times… and admiring fans frequently stop her on the street.
Another fellow I know who recently began daring to live his dream has been nicknamed "Doc," because he is a medical doctor. In his 50s, he realized he had a yearning to become a stand-up comic. His wife and friends thought he was nuts. But he went out there, got himself immersed in the local comedy scene, and now performs regularly throughout his home state.
Whatever your dream is, you can pursue it - by doing the following:
1. Identify your dream.
2. Research the steps that will be needed to pursue it.
Taking a leap into an industry you don’t know is fine - but you don’t want to go into it completely unprepared. Every field has accepted norms, rules, requirements, or (at a minimum) information that would be useful to know. For example, if you wanted to start a seminar business, you should study both public speaking techniques and how to market yourself. If you wanted to become a fishing guide, you’d study local licensing requirements and maybe take a job as an apprentice with a captain to learn the ropes.
3. Create a concrete plan of actions to take… with a workable timetable. Breaking your goal into easy-to-complete steps is one of the best ways to avoid being overwhelmed by it. A timetable is a critical component of any plan. The key to success in any field is to actually take action - and a timetable forces you to do that instead of procrastinate.
4. Execute those steps, no matter how intimidating they may seem.
5. Refine your plan as you learn and continue to pursue your dream.
6. Keep pursuing your dream… even when you hit bumps.
I’ve been able to make my dreams come true… and so can you. All you need to do is make the decision to go for it!
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter who has written a multimillion-dollar film and is the president of a successful direct-mail company.]
______________________________
Notes From Michael Masterson’s Blog: "The Four-Hour Work Week"
I’ve been reading The Four-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. It’s very engaging - smart and full of good stories and good humor. The book’s argument - that you can run a successful business by working only four hours a week - is mind crack for any busy entrepreneur. Ferriss makes the idea seem plausible.
I don’t remember how I found out about him. I do remember seeing a piece he wrote in Forbes Small Business that featured a photo of him training in mixed martial arts with a caption that went something like, "I run a great business… and spend more time on sports than work… using my simple time-saving system."
Ferriss is not only an interesting guy, he’s a master at promoting himself. For example, he holds a world record in the tango (for the most turns made in a given time) - and to document the achievement, he got himself on Regis and Kelly. He also won a martial arts competition by, as it turns out, taking advantage of a technicality in the rules.
Ferriss was working 15 hours a day, he says, when he came across the work of economist Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto is the one who came up with the original "80/20 rule" (also known as Pareto’s Law), demonstrating that 80 percent of a society’s wealth is produced and owned by 20 percent of the population. "This highly debated principle," Ferriss points out, "also applies to other situations. For instance, 80 percent of a company’s profits typically come from 20 percent of its products and customers."
Ferriss applied Pareto’s 19th century concept to his company "by pinpointing the sources of most of my sales - and my problems - so I could spend my time more efficiently." He quickly realized that of more than 120 wholesale customers, only five were bringing in 95 percent of his revenues. Then, in a single day, he made a few simple but "emotionally difficult" decisions that changed his life for the better.
"First, I decided to stop pursuing most of my customers so that I could profile and duplicate the most profitable ones," Ferriss says. "I was spending most of my time working on small accounts, when the big five already ordered regularly without any follow up. I also abandoned being busy for being productive. I realized I could reduce my hours by limiting tasks to the critical few and cutting my work time to force myself to focus on the most important projects."
I like what I’m hearing from this guy.
- Michael Masterson
______________________________
It’s Fun to Know: Dual Suns
A classic scene in the first Star Wars film showing Luke Skywalker gazing at a double sunset on his home planet may not be science fiction after all. NASA researchers now believe that planets orbiting dual suns (a.k.a. binary stars) may be just as common in the universe as single-sun solar systems. The scientists based their findings on infrared readings from the Spitzer telescope that is in orbit above the Earth.
(Source: BBC)
______________________________
Word to the Wise: Machination
A "machination" (mak-uh-NAY-shun) - from the Latin for "contrivance" - is a scheme intended to accomplish some (usually) evil end.
Example (as used by George Lang in Nobody Knows the Truffles I’ve Seen): "He was telling me how he could have married the royal princess as a reward for his bravery in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he was an infantryman in the Kaiserliche und Konigliche Austro-Hungarian army, but for the machinations of the evil Archduke somebody-or-other."
Michael Masterson
__________________________________________________
These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2068, 06-14-07], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.
In ETR #2057, Michael Masterson wrote about a fitness challenge that one of his clients is implementing. Staff members team up to lose weight and get fit. And $1,000 will be awarded to the man, the woman, and the team that loses the highest percentage of body fat
Here at Early to Rise, eight people have committed to participating in a similar 12-week experiment. Last night, we met with our trainer, Coach Yari, for the first time. She took "before" pictures, gathered our measurements, and calculated our body-fat percentages.
To help us get started, she presented each of us with a grocery list and recommended eating plan, a six-minute mini-workout to do on the days we don’t meet with her, and a diary to record everything we eat. She will be looking over our food diaries every time we meet and making suggestions to help us achieve our weight-loss goals.
The purpose of keeping the food diary is that you may not realize how many bad eating habits you have until you write down everything you eat and drink. (This is something we have talked about before in ETR.) For instance, you may eat lean grilled meat for lunch and dinner, but if you wash it down with a sugary soda, you’re not eating well. And you may be surprised by all the little "harmless" snacks you munch on that are actually piling on the calories.
This is something you can do at home as part of your own fitness challenge: Monitor what you eat and use that record to make healthful changes.
During our initial meeting with Coach Yari, one of the first steps we took to help us measure our progress and keep us on track was to write down a "visualized" goal of how we want to look and feel at the end of the 12 weeks. This is another thing that you can do as part of your own at-home fitness challenge: Set a goal for where you’ll be at the end of your 12-week fitness regimen.
We are all excited to get started - and I, for one, am looking forward to the results we will see. We’ll keep you posted on our progress. And we hope you keep us posted on yours!
______________________________
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death."
Robert Fulghum
Don’t Let Not Knowing How to Do It Stop You
By Paul Lawrence
As I stepped into the casting office for my first professional audition as an actor, I was overwhelmed. The reception area was filled with gorgeous women and sharp-looking guys - and (unlike me) all of them had the air of confidence that comes with knowing exactly what they were doing.
Uncertainly, I caught one young man’s eye and asked if there was a place to sign in. He directed me to a table in the corner.
That was the easy part! I tapped my foot anxiously as, one by one, people were called into the back office for their auditions. I silently wondered if it would be obvious that I’d never auditioned before. "What am I doing here?"I thought. "I don’t belong here. I have no training, no experience. All of these other people are clearly professionals. How do I stand a chance?" I momentarily entertained the thought of dashing out the door.
But the same determination that drove me to that casting call took over. Being an actor had been a secret lifelong dream of mine. I’d wanted to audition for a role in a movie or TV show for years, but hadn’t gotten the guts to try until I reached my 30s.
Finally, my name was called.
Once in the audition room, a casting director gave me a scenario about being a crazy truck driver on a wild drive, and I was told to improvise some lines as they shot some footage.
After some still shots, the action began. It was quick and painless. Certainly not the best performance the casting director ever saw, but likely not the worst. I left without any fanfare.
I’d love to tell you that I received a call the next day, and the job was mine. But that’s not what happened. What did happen was that I turned that first day of overcoming my fears into five years of auditions. And along the way, I actually landed some parts.
I’ve had a few speaking roles in small films and a few brief moments on screen in a blockbuster titled Bad Boys II (where I had the good fortune to briefly hobnob - and actually exchange joking comments - with Will Smith, who was as nice as I’d heard he was). I’m proud to say I’ve got a listing on IMDB.com (the bible of the entertainment business) as an actor… which is not easy to come by.
The truth is, being an actor was never my main career goal. Sure, I’ve made money from it - but, more important, acting has added a layer to my life that has been emotionally rewarding. I certainly hope I achieve more as an actor - but even if I don’t, I have accomplished that lifelong dream.
The point I want to make here is that I achieved this goal without any formal training. Admittedly, I was intimidated by my lack of experience. It took some serious determination to follow through with it. But once I took that crucial step to overcome my fears and doubts, I was able to achieve a dream I’d had for years.
Perhaps you have a dream. Maybe you want to own your own company. Maybe you want to finally publish that novel you’ve been writing. Maybe you want to usher your garage band into the mainstream. And maybe you haven’t yet pursued that dream because you feel you’re missing something - the "right" kind of education or insider knowledge of the industry.
But I strongly urge you not to let "not knowing how to do it" stop you. You can learn all you need to know by simply going after what you want.
In my case as an aspiring actor, I hired a professional photographer to take head shots, and I put together a resume highlighting every relevant credential I could think of (and minimizing my lack of experience). I sent those things to local talent agencies that I found in directories. To my pleasant surprise, a few called me to come in and sign up. Shortly thereafter, one of them sent me on that first audition I described at the beginning of this article.
Enough about me…
Jenny T. recently made her dreams come true, even though she got a late start. Jenny, in her mid 60s, has had a secret ambition since she was a little girl to be a glamorous show dancer.
Her chances of making it to Broadway were slim to none - but that didn’t stop her from making a different version of her dream come true. Although Jenny never had any formal training as a dancer, she began to perform show routines for live audiences.
Along the way, she took lessons to improve her dancing skills. After a few years, Jenny is now a local celebrity. She’s performed dance routines for audiences of up to 500 people more than 25 times… and admiring fans frequently stop her on the street.
Another fellow I know who recently began daring to live his dream has been nicknamed "Doc," because he is a medical doctor. In his 50s, he realized he had a yearning to become a stand-up comic. His wife and friends thought he was nuts. But he went out there, got himself immersed in the local comedy scene, and now performs regularly throughout his home state.
Whatever your dream is, you can pursue it - by doing the following:
1. Identify your dream.
2. Research the steps that will be needed to pursue it.
Taking a leap into an industry you don’t know is fine - but you don’t want to go into it completely unprepared. Every field has accepted norms, rules, requirements, or (at a minimum) information that would be useful to know. For example, if you wanted to start a seminar business, you should study both public speaking techniques and how to market yourself. If you wanted to become a fishing guide, you’d study local licensing requirements and maybe take a job as an apprentice with a captain to learn the ropes.
3. Create a concrete plan of actions to take… with a workable timetable. Breaking your goal into easy-to-complete steps is one of the best ways to avoid being overwhelmed by it. A timetable is a critical component of any plan. The key to success in any field is to actually take action - and a timetable forces you to do that instead of procrastinate.
4. Execute those steps, no matter how intimidating they may seem.
5. Refine your plan as you learn and continue to pursue your dream.
6. Keep pursuing your dream… even when you hit bumps.
I’ve been able to make my dreams come true… and so can you. All you need to do is make the decision to go for it!
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter who has written a multimillion-dollar film and is the president of a successful direct-mail company.]
______________________________
Notes From Michael Masterson’s Blog: "The Four-Hour Work Week"
I’ve been reading The Four-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. It’s very engaging - smart and full of good stories and good humor. The book’s argument - that you can run a successful business by working only four hours a week - is mind crack for any busy entrepreneur. Ferriss makes the idea seem plausible.
I don’t remember how I found out about him. I do remember seeing a piece he wrote in Forbes Small Business that featured a photo of him training in mixed martial arts with a caption that went something like, "I run a great business… and spend more time on sports than work… using my simple time-saving system."
Ferriss is not only an interesting guy, he’s a master at promoting himself. For example, he holds a world record in the tango (for the most turns made in a given time) - and to document the achievement, he got himself on Regis and Kelly. He also won a martial arts competition by, as it turns out, taking advantage of a technicality in the rules.
Ferriss was working 15 hours a day, he says, when he came across the work of economist Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto is the one who came up with the original "80/20 rule" (also known as Pareto’s Law), demonstrating that 80 percent of a society’s wealth is produced and owned by 20 percent of the population. "This highly debated principle," Ferriss points out, "also applies to other situations. For instance, 80 percent of a company’s profits typically come from 20 percent of its products and customers."
Ferriss applied Pareto’s 19th century concept to his company "by pinpointing the sources of most of my sales - and my problems - so I could spend my time more efficiently." He quickly realized that of more than 120 wholesale customers, only five were bringing in 95 percent of his revenues. Then, in a single day, he made a few simple but "emotionally difficult" decisions that changed his life for the better.
"First, I decided to stop pursuing most of my customers so that I could profile and duplicate the most profitable ones," Ferriss says. "I was spending most of my time working on small accounts, when the big five already ordered regularly without any follow up. I also abandoned being busy for being productive. I realized I could reduce my hours by limiting tasks to the critical few and cutting my work time to force myself to focus on the most important projects."
I like what I’m hearing from this guy.
- Michael Masterson
______________________________
It’s Fun to Know: Dual Suns
A classic scene in the first Star Wars film showing Luke Skywalker gazing at a double sunset on his home planet may not be science fiction after all. NASA researchers now believe that planets orbiting dual suns (a.k.a. binary stars) may be just as common in the universe as single-sun solar systems. The scientists based their findings on infrared readings from the Spitzer telescope that is in orbit above the Earth.
(Source: BBC)
______________________________
Word to the Wise: Machination
A "machination" (mak-uh-NAY-shun) - from the Latin for "contrivance" - is a scheme intended to accomplish some (usually) evil end.
Example (as used by George Lang in Nobody Knows the Truffles I’ve Seen): "He was telling me how he could have married the royal princess as a reward for his bravery in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he was an infantryman in the Kaiserliche und Konigliche Austro-Hungarian army, but for the machinations of the evil Archduke somebody-or-other."
Michael Masterson
__________________________________________________
These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2068, 06-14-07], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.
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