“Over 100+ Audio Interviews Of Real-Life Motivational Speakers, Legends, Coaches & Mentors (Plus Worksheets And Transcripts)”

If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants. – Isaac Newton

Get over 100 real-life motivational speakers, legends, coaches and mentors interviews helping you live the story of your dreams…

If You Can Spare 59 Minutes,
We’ll Introduce Your New Best Friends…
An Army Of Powerful Mentors  & Coaches (100+ And Growing)
Who Will Blast You To The Front Of The Pack So You
Can Finally Achieve Anything
You Desire From Life…As Easily As
A Sponge Soaking Up Water!

Don’t waste another precious minute on empty wishes and regrets. Seize the day, grab life by the collar, and capture the key to unlock a goldmine of inspired secrets, illuminating insights, and “outside the box” wisdom straight from the mouths of the most successful entrepreneurs, spiritual leaders, and brilliant mentors of our time. Discover how easily you can transform your life from humdrum and colorless to a star-spangled bonanza of personal success!

“Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven’t paid the price to decide what is really important to them.” ~ Dr. Stephen Covey

Would you like to claim any of these gifts for your life?

• A bank account stuffed with money
• Cherished relationships that nourish
• Work you’re passionate about that has you springing from bed each day
• A fine home that fully expresses who you are
• Luxurious vacations that replenish and rejuvenate
• The freedom to support your favorite charitable causes
• Glorious good health with energy to spare
• An abundance of time to spend doing exactly what you want…with family, friends…or yourself!
• A spiritual connection that leads, heals, and motivates

Whatever it might be, now is the time to crack open the door to your “secret room”.

You know the place…that dusty corner where you keep your deepest hopes, dreams, and desires for your life.

Because if you are reading this, I already know one of your secrets…

You know that you are meant to do something special…that there’s an inner light flickering bravely on, no matter what stormy times life has dished out to you already.

Quite simply…

You are meant for more!

Finally, it is possible to make dramatic changes in every area of your life – instantly – and turn yourself into a success magnet. Your creativity, insight, and achievement will shift to auto-pilot. And best of all, you’ll learn to live life to the fullest, savoring every moment and squeezing every drop of its sweet nectar in the process. The most inspiringly successful group of mentors on the planet stands ready to speak directly to YOU, and unlock the door to your destiny!

We’re talking the best of the best coaches and mentors…the cream of the crop…available to you at your convenience, as many times as you want. Top notch guides on your journey to personal greatness like…Jay Abraham…T. Harv Eker…Dr. John Gray…Richard Paul Evans…Dr. Stephen Covey…Neale Donald Walsh…Dr. Zhi Gang Sha…Denis Waitley…and that’s just a tiny sampling!

You are about to get instant access to every one of our mentors and coaches Interviews! That’s more than 100 interviews with 2 new ones added every month! (Value: at least $2,495.00). The interviews are about an hour long each.

If you’re like most people, you probably believe that it is a struggle to reach your goals and achieve all you want in life – sometimes you might even think it’s impossible.

Most folks believe they will never stop their destructive habits and eliminate them for good. They want to shed those un-wanted pounds, take control of their finances, find a career they truly love that allows them to spend quality time with their family or meet the person of their dreams – but something keeps holding them back.

People Aren’t Always Destined to Fail

You probably doubt you can unleash such incredible powers and program your life for success… And almost immediately notice a powerful surge of motivation and completely eliminate the last remnant of procrastination from your being.
We understand these claims may seem like hype, fluff, and tall promises until you understand these facts:

It’s Not Your Fault

Here’s what this is all about. Regardless of where you are in life or what’s happened in your past, whether you’re doing great but would love to do better, or you are crippled by debt, are overweight, stuck in a dead end job or struggling to find that special someone, your future is about to do a 180 degree turn as you soar to success.

This system is designed to affect every area of your life. It doesn’t matter what you want to overcome or accomplish. You will discover how to achieve all your dreams and desires… even the ones that seem unreachable right now.

Listen up. I’m not talking about positive thinking or the Law of Attraction. I’m talking about making your dreams come true once and for all… through positive and lasting change by following a proven system created by the most successful people in the world.

But before you fly into an anxious tizzy, thinking you don’t know how to change your life on your own…here’s the exciting news…you don’t have to!

Because when you have “friends in high places” willing to help, you can quickly make small mental shifts in your thinking that will nourish you to bloom to your full potential. It’s like this…it isn’t just who you know, it’s what they know and are willing to share with you!

Think you don’t have access to anyone like that? Think again, because…

The most inspiringly successful group of mentors and coaches on the planet stands ready to speak directly to YOU, and unlock the door to your destiny!

The interviews are about an hour long each, with people like:

T. Harv Eker, wealth builder and author of best seller The Millionaire Mind… Here’s a portion of what you will learn in this interview…

• Specific high income and wealth creation strategies
• How to quadruple your speed to financial freedom
• The 5 “habits” of truly wealthy people
• The underlying cause of almost all financial problems
• 12 ways to earn passive income so you can make money while you sleep
• The world’s easiest money management method that allows you to save a fortune and at the same time encourages you to spend money for “play”
• Why it’s imperative to manage your money NOW even if you don’t have much of it.

Stephen R. Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In this exclusive interview Stephen takes you step-by-step through the process of discovering your 4 intelligences so you can easily achieve the correct balance to optimize their effectiveness:

• IQ- Your rational, logical mind.
• EQ- your emotional intelligence that deals with intuition and creativity. (It’s that important still small voice within that can easily lead the way for you.)
• SQ- your divine spiritual intelligence that connects to your deep need to live a life of integrity…. a life that matters…. a life of value.
• PQ- your physical intelligence that can act as your own powerful vehicle for healing, vibrant health and energy

Dr. John Gray, author of Men are from Mars Women are from Venus. In this revealing interview you will learn:

• How a freak occurrence in Mexico stole one of John’s five senses, and ultimately led to a discovery that can change your whole outlook on life.
• The tragic losses of two key family members that led to John’s destiny. You’ll find tremendous strength for your own life through these hart rending examples of healing.
• Why one out of five women in America is depressed, and the natural remedy that will banish self-destructive thoughts forever.
• One quick change you can make that will instantly boost your immunity by 90%!
• Why your body type invites certain nervous disorders, and how you can live a peaceful stress-free life with the one stunning revelation.

Here is a partial list of all the interviews you will receive:

Akiane Kramarik Inspired Artist And Poet
Alex Loyd Developer of The Healing Code
Alex Mandossian Internet Marketer and Conversion Specialist
Arielle Ford Publicist, Producer and Author
Art Linkletter Legendary Television and Radio Icon
Asher Milgrom Founder of AMA Corp
Barbara DeAngelis Relationship & Personal Growth Expert
Bill Bartmann The “Unknown” Billionaire
Bill Bauman Rising Legend – Present Day Mystic
Bill Harris Founder of Centerpointe Research, Technology
Bill Phillips Author, Publisher, and Filmmaker
Bob Scheinfeld Success Breakthrough Expert
Bob Wyland World Renowned Artist and Activist
Bonnie St. John Author and Speaker
Byron Katie Reid Life Transformation Legend
Caroline Myss Health and Mysticism Journalist
Catherine Lanigan Fiction and Non-Fiction Writer
Charlie Gay Bringing Innovation to Developing Countries
Charlie Jones Author, Speaker and Leader
Christopher Guerriero Fitness Expert
Craig Kielburger Founder of Free the Children
Cynthia Kersey Best Selling Author & Trainer
Dan Kuschell Speaker, Trainer, and Author
Dan Millman World Champion Athlete and Bestselling Author
Dave Buck World Renowned Business Coach
Dave Lakhani Persuasion Expert & PR Guru
David Lynch Real Life Writing and Directing Legend
David Riklan Self Improvement Expert
David Wood Life and Business Coach
Dean Graziosi Entrepreneur, Coach and Author
Debbie Allen Real Life Sales Marketing Legend
Debbie Ford Personal Transformation Pioneer
Debra Poneman Speaker & Author
Denis Waitley Real Life Productivity and Achievement Legend
Donovan Leitch Folk Singer, Poet, and Transcendental Meditation Practictioner
Dr. Alexandra Gayek Naturopathic Doctor & Wellness Coach
Dr. Andrew Newberg Researcher
Dr. Barbara Marx Hubbard Futurist, Author and Public Speaker
Dr. Christiane Northrup Women’s Health & Wellness Expert
Dr. Ivan Misner Networking Guru
Dr. Jean Houston Scholar, Philosopher & Researcher
Dr. Joe Vitale Marketing Specialist & “Mr. Fire”
Dr. John Douillard Author, Chiropractor and Ayurvedic Practitioner
Dr. John Gray Real Life Relationship Legend
Dr. Srikumar Rao Leadership Consultant
Dr. Stephen R. Covey Real Life Success Habits Legend
Dr. Wayne Dyer The Father of Motivation
Dr. Zhi Gang Sha Real Life Power Healing Legend
Ellie Drake World-Renowned Speaker
Eric Lofholm Master Sales Trainer
Gary Ryan Blair The Goals Guy
Gregory Reid Motivational Speaker
Hale Dwoskin Rising Personal Freedom Legend
Hilton Johnson Health Coach Teletrainer
Howard Martin Business Strategist
Immaculee Ilibigiza Emanator of Peace and Light
Jack Canfield Co-Creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® Series
James Ray World Thought Leader
James Twyman The Peace Troubadour
Janet Switzer Publishing Marketing Maverick
Jay Abraham Real Life Marketing Legend
Jay Conrad Levinson Father of Guerrilla Marketing
Jeffrey Smith Bestselling Author & Advocate
Jennifer Hawthorne Speaker and Award Winning Author
Jesse Cannone Fitness & Health Expert
Jim Bunch Life Success Coach
Jim Rohn America’s Foremost Business Philosopher
John Assaraf Real Life Results Achiever
Les Brown Speaker, Entrepreneur and Best Selling Author
Lisa Nichols Author & Motivational Speaker
Loral Langemeier Financial Strategist
Lynne McTaggart Award-winning Investigative Journalist
M. Ted Morter, III Health Care Innovator
Marci Shimoff Bestselling Author & Motivational Expert
Mariel Hemingway Author, Actor & Wellness Advocate
Mark Joyner Best Selling Author and Entrepreneur
Matt Flannery Kiva Developer and CEO
Michael Oliver International Sales Trainer, Best Selling Author, Speaker and Consultant
Mike Love The Father of Motivation
Millard Fuller Humanitarian, Author, Motivator
Moby Musician & Music Producer
Muhammad Yunus Nobel Peace Prize Winning Banker and Economist
Neale Donald Walsch Real Life Legend – Spiritual Messenger
Nisandeh Neta Author & Motivational Speaker
Pat Burns Rising Legend
Patrick Combs Author, Speaker & Entertainer
Paul Scheele Real Life Learning Strategies Pioneer
Paula Abdul Choreographer, Designer & Inspiration
Rabbi Yehuda Berg Real Life Kabbalah Legend
Raymond Aaron True Wealth Principles Legend
Rebecca Fine Motivational Speaker
Rev. Michael Beckwith & Stephen Lewis Spiritual Leader
Rhonda Byrne Executive Producer of The Secret
Richard Paul Evans Real Life Publishing Legend
Robert Kiyosaki Best Selling Author & Entrepreneur
Roger Hamilton Asia’s Wealth Expert
Scott Hamilton Olympic Figure Skater & Author
Scott Martineau Pioneer and Leader in Self-Help
Shore Slocum Personal Development Coach
Stedman Graham Best Selling Author, Educator and Businessman
Stephen M R Covey Rising Speed of Trust Legend
Stephen Pierce Real Life Internet Marketing Legend
Stephen Simon Real Life Cinematic Legend
Steven E Publisher, Speaker & Author
Stewart Emery Entrepreneur & Executive Coach
T Harv Eker Maker of Millionaire Minds
Tony Robbins World Authority on Leadership Psychology
Willie Nelson Country Singer, Songwriter & Environmental Activist
And many more…

Ready to jumpstart your life? Here’s what everyday people just like you have to say about the Real-Life Legends, Coaches and Mentors…

“I have learned much from the calls and look forward to each call and guest on the call. I am a small business owner now making the money that I need and am learning much that I can put into action to increase my business and profitability. People must have dreams and goals in their lives and must take action to accomplish them. You must have passion to be ultra-successful!” ~ Thomas Bice

“It’s so amazing to have this opportunity and I want to share it with others.” ~ Chris Felts

“I like the whole idea of having interviews and the freshness in which it is conducted, the appreciation of the persons, the enthusiasm, the energy, the purposefulness and the fun attitude. Thank you very much for your contribution to humanity.” ~ Guenter Etzmuss

“I think the network you have established is marvelous. I have listened to and read works of several of the presenters before, but am discovering many that I had not heard of or had a chance to listen to or read.” ~ Cassandra Moore

“You have amazing people on these calls in a variety of different fields, all pertinent to today’s personal growth needs. It’s a great way to access quality information and helps us to decide where to put our resources for best results.” ~ Sally Bates

And when you tap into their incredible “real world” wisdom, you’ll quickly banish crippling anxiety and self-doubt. Matter of fact, you’ll dance right past any stumbling blocks that steal your potential, and turn them into an avalanche of success!
You see, your ultimate purpose in life is like a beautiful blueprint, drawn by the hand of the Universe…in living color! And its outline for your life lies light years beyond the petty difficulties we all face each day or our shortsighted ideas of what will ultimately bring us happiness.

Sadly, many move numbly through their entire lives…sleepwalking to the grave without ever discovering the greatness and passion they are meant for.

Take control of your life today! In the amount of time you mindlessly fritter away on lunch at McDonalds…soak up life changing knowledge like a sponge instead, when you…

Transform your life with the mentoring of Real Life Legends, Mentors & Coaches!

Benjamin Franklin once said, ‘There are two ways to acquire wisdom; you can either buy it or borrow it. By buying it, you pay full price in terms of time and cost to learn the lessons you need to learn. By borrowing it, you go to those men and women who have already paid the price to learn the lessons and get their wisdom from them.’

This is the essence of the mentor-protégé relationship. By going to people who are ahead of you in the personal or professional arena, and by opening yourself up to their input, advice and guidance, you can save yourself the many months (maybe even years) and the thousands of dollars it would cost to learn what you need to learn all by yourself.

“Kop Kopmier, the famous success authority, said that one of the most important secrets of success is to learn proven success methods. He once told me that perhaps the fastest way to get ahead was to study the experts and to do what they do, rather than trying to learn it all yourself. In fact, he mentioned that no one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.” ~ Brian Tracy, Motivational Speaker & Sales Training Expert

We’re pleased to announce our breakthrough Real-Life Legends, Coaches & Mentors opportunity! Because now you’ll have a rich storehouse crammed with supercharged power tools you can whip out to build a rock solid foundation for the best of your life.

But your Real-Life Legends membership is about so much more than just making money…

Fact is, one of the first things that will happen for you is the realization that you are surrounded with abundance. You’ll shake your head in wonderment when you begin to see for yourself how incredibly easy it is to start making serious money, once you tap into your passions and tweak the way you look at prosperity.

But beyond the tangible rewards in your life (the kind you can put in your wallet!), imagine the other massive benefits that you just can’t put a dollar sign in front of.

Things like…

Abiding peace spreading throughout your spirit with the startling realization you are finally fulfilling your personal destiny and “reason for being”

Bubbling joyful energy each day as you continually discover more of your inner greatness (Warning: you may find some of your friends and family hardly recognize the “new you!”)

Delightfully delicious surprises unleashing your passions brings to your personal life (your life partner just may write us a thank-you note!)

Growing inner strength and self-confidence that carries you further than you’d ever thought possible (you’ll wonder how you ever missed your natural born talents until now!)

You’ll be unstoppable! Consider how wonderful it will be to finally banish the twin demons of regret and shame from your life forever. You’ll never again have to grieve what you failed to do with your life, because you’ll be too busy passionately living your dreams!

Right about now you probably have a question on your mind…

“How do I know if Real-Life Legends membership will really help me?”

Look at it this way. If you were trying to figure out how to scale Mount Everest for the first time, it would be a heck of a lot easier (and safer!) if you had an army of brawny expert climbers tethered to you—ready, willing, and able to haul you to the top of the mountain, right?

I’m quite sure you’d automatically know you weren’t going to lie in a heap at the end of the rope like a limp fish on the line, waiting for someone else to haul your behind to the top.

Sure, you’d still have to get the lead out and put some effort into it. But it would quite literally make all the difference to your life to have the proven expertise of the masters short-circuit your learning curve.

Listen up, because it’s time to conquer your own personal summit to the pinnacle of success…

You can have the key to a goldmine jam packed with Real Life Legends interviews to get you started! Over 100 of them to start with..

Then every month, we’ll add two more in-depth interviews to the pipeline, bursting with fresh new insights. The interviews usually run for about an hour, though some of our Legends are so excited to share with you, we chat a bit longer. (Honestly, the time seems to fly by in a flash, and we didn’t figure you’d mind getting even more value!)

It’s like having a faucet that connects to an unending supply of inspiration and guidance from the most rejuvenating river of knowledge in the world! All you have to do is turn it on whenever you’re thirsty for a rushing flow of knowledge to drink from.

Take a quick peek at 3 ways instant access to your Real-Life Legends membership will empower you:

T. Harv Eker, wealth builder and author of best seller “The Millionaire Mind”…

“T. Harv Eker is one of the most extraordinary trainers in the world today! Harv’s experiential techniques are transformational, and he creates amazing results every time he speaks!” ~ Mark Victor Hansen, Co-Creator of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series

• The most powerful psychological secret of wealth that can turn your life around in an instant. Once you realize this one point, you’ll understand why you can’t seem to get ahead financially.
• Why this message is coming to you at this particular moment in time, and why you must thankfully accept your financial destiny.
• How to identify self-destructive (but unconscious!) beliefs about money that block you from abundance. It’s stunningly simple to turn this around once you know where to look!
• How to fine-tune your money and success blueprint to guarantee massive financial success (don’t be surprised if your personal relationships improve too!)
• How to easily walk in the footsteps of wealthy people as they lead you to success.

Jay Abraham, one of the world’s most preeminent business growth advisors…

“Jay teaches you more workable, tangible, profitable techniques and strategies than you can probably apply in three lifetimes. But what he teaches you about mindset is his true gift of wealth.” ~ Mike Basch, an original Founder of Federal Express (FedEx)

• The biggest mistake you can make in life that will hugely limit your success. Once you realize how easy this is to remedy, you’ll never see your life purpose the same way again.
• How to achieve anything you want, faster and easier than you ever thought possible.
• The crucial role of passion, and how it magically links to every single aspect of your growth and prosperity.
• Jay Abraham’s full explanation of his famous “strategy of preeminence” and how it will skyrocket your success. This alone is a tremendous opportunity for you—Jay’s top clients pay up to $15,000 just to gain access to this knowledge!
• An incredibly revealing “test” you can give yourself right now that can turn your life around quick as a wink.

Dr. Zhi Gang Sha, world renowned herbalist, natural healer, spiritual master, and author of best selling book “The Power of Healing”.

“Practical, useful information and techniques for putting the body’s natural abilities to work on healing—a wonderful contribution.” ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer, bestselling author

“…all about taking control of your health. Dr. Zhi Gang Sha offers a clear, practical path to learning the secrets of self healing.” ~ Marianne Williamson, author of “Return to Love”

• Dramatically reduce unnecessary stress and crippling anxiety.
• Finally relieve chronic pain once and for all…without medications.
• Power up the functioning of your immune system to ward off disease.
• Rapidly multiply your energy and stamina so you can do all the things you love.
• Fully develop every ounce of your spiritual, mental, and physical potential.

And right this minute there’s a growing army of mentors available to you! There’s so much great stuff with this, I’m positively breathless trying to cram it all into this letter.

You’ll feel like you’re opening a fabulous surprise package each month as we introduce two more incredible mentors to you. I mean, these folks deeply understand the magical math of the Universal laws of reciprocity, and are more than happy to “walk the talk”. So the vast majority of our Real Life Legends eagerly bring extra gifts to the party!

At this point you’re probably thinking, “Woa, this could really change my life…but it sounds super expensive…how can I afford it?” Well, not to worry, because here’s the best part of all…

You’ll quickly gain an “unfair advantage” when you PowWow with our Real Life Legends for pennies on the dollar! In fact, they are all part of your membership in this Club. If you’re looking for the most bang for your buck…think about this.

Pick up the phone and give Jay Abraham a call and try to book an hour of his time, it’ll run you a bare minimum of $5,000-$15,000, and his waiting list is miles long.

Or order up one of Dr. Stephen Covey’s tutorial programs–it can easily break the bank at $2,395. Matter of fact, you’d be hard-pressed to buy an hour of any of our Real Life Legend’s time for less than $1000 (if they can fit you into their demanding schedules).

This is one of those rare moments in life where a golden opportunity is handed to you on a silver platter! It’s the smartest, surest, easiest way to grow into your dreams. And not only that, it’s…

The best investment we’ve found that GUARANTEES you’ll receive ever increasing dividends!

You will get over 100 interviews to start with. Then, every month you get…

• Access to TWO new Real Life Legend Interviews You’ll be notified of each new recording approximately every 2 weeks! And enjoy the interview at ANY time that’s convenient for you!
• PLUS Success Blueprints to accompany each interview These handy guides will help you maximize the benefit of each call!
• PLUS written transcripts of each interview. You’ll quickly reconfirm the depth of each interview in these small booklets (about 30 pages each) as you highlight key points to review at your leisure!

Each one a priceless resource for you!

Enjoy even more Blockbuster Value on us… Guaranteed Value Of At Least $2767.97! We’re flinging open the door to our Archives, to give you access to every one of our 101+ Real Life Legends’ interviews! With people like:

Denis Waitley, creator of The Seeds of Greatness Program
Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God
Richard Paul Evans, author of The Christmas Box
and many more…

As a matter of fact, here’s who you have to look forward to in the next few months…

Superstar productivity consultant Denis Waitley…real estate guru Raymond Aaron…creative genius David Lynch…mega-successful Internet marketer Stephen Pierce…Director/Producer Stephen Simon… Singer/Composer/ Intuitive Healer Riki B. Beckwith…

I urge you to embrace this phenomenal opportunity to learn from the best. We believe with all our heart and soul that this program will finally unlock the door to getting anything you want out of life!

For the very first time, these cutting edge techniques are gathered into one place. And the best part is they are so simple and easy to use. While we’ve done all the hard work, all you need to do to tap into your own inner success mechanism is “plug and play.”

Each member of our team of experts brings their unique contribution to the table and – with profound clarity – explains how easy it is for you to activate your own personal power.

Each one shares with you their piece of the puzzle that will change your life. But we must warn you, the breakthroughs revealed are so awesome, you may not be able to sleep after hearing them. Your success programming will be so unrelenting in wanting to take action.

You’ll quickly discover you have developed new habits and beliefs that will steer you towards your goals. You’ll finally blast through whatever obstacles have been holding you back.

Almost overnight, you’ll shatter limiting beliefs, transform your world view, and set a course for success. Problems and difficulties will melt away and you will see the world in a totally different way.

And all of this can occur in less than 7 days…

It’s the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

Read what more of our Membership say about their Real Life Legends’ experience. Remember, you only go round once…your unique gifts to the world may never be fully expressed unless you move forward now!

“I appreciate the blessing of being able to tap into the wisdom and experience of those who are indeed real life legends—as a gift to me from the Universe—and yourselves, Liz and Janet. I also appreciate the focus on passion, wisdom, and experience—and not just on business strategies!” ~ Beverly Rilatt-Richardson

“Great content—action oriented material!” ~ Mark Myszak

“It is fabulous that you are sharing this wisdom with the world. The ripple effect is amazing.” ~ Susan Folk

“Because it is useful, motivational, and helps to keep you focused in the direction of your goal. Thank you very much for this wonderful service you offer us, for the wealth of information given to us.” ~ Irene Jenson

“There is a lot of great info on these calls that cannot be readily found elsewhere. I like listening to motivational speakers and successful people, and have friends who feel the same way.” ~ Victoria White

“Inspiring, motivational, helps others and helps share my values with others. Overall excellent service; accessible by phone/internet, e-mail reminders and inspirations, great speakers, interviewing, relevant and helpful.” ~ Myano

“These calls are a wonderful idea. Thanks for getting these interesting people to give us their valuable time.” ~ M. Gaissert

“The calls have been a wonderful gift to me. Steven Covey is a very wise man. It was a pleasure to hear him speak about the 8th Habit. You are doing great work!” ~ Karmen

“It is a different learning experience for me to hear thoughts articulated verbally. Reading someone’s concepts is yet another kind of learning experience.” ~ Colanne Stampel

“The RLL Club continues to meet my needs by giving me access to some of the world’s most incredible minds. They are thought leaders in the physical, emotional, financial and spiritual areas, who challenge you to continuously step outside your comfort zone and follow your passion. RLL Club gives you the tools to take your life to the next level…” ~ John Curran Keene, New Hampshire www.coachcurran.com

“I appreciate the blessing of being able to tap into the wisdom and experience of those who are indeed real life legends – as a gift to me from the Universe – and yourselves, Liz and Janet. I also appreciate the focus on passion, wisdom, and experience – and not just on business strategies.” ~ Beverly Rilatt-Richardson

“There is a lot of great info on these calls that cannot be readily found elsewhere. I like listening to motivational speakers and successful people, and have friends who feel the same way.” ~ Victoria White

Grab all your interviews inside this Club as part of your membership!

The Internet business and coaching Library contains over 900 items on all sorts of related topics. From internet business, to forex investing, to real-estate investing, to personal development and self help, etc, etc… All there for you. And every month we add more resources to the library, just as we add more resources to all the other parts of the Club. Googling things is great, but libraries are even better! You get complete volumes of knowledge in eBook format – which beats relying on web pages!

And by the way, many (about half or there about) of the items in the Library come with resale rights. This means that you can sell them in your own business and keep 100% of the revenues.

Plus you have the Community. Listen – it is very difficult to rise up on your own. It is critical that you form a mastermind group of like minded individuals with whom you can share ideas, plans and assist each other. Both locally in your physical neighborhood and online. It is with this in mind that we created a very sophisticated community system here for you. Once you have fellowship, where two or more gather, it is easy to succeed. We encourage you and provide you with ways for you to connect with other members currently online, or who are members of your courses, and so on. You can ask questions, debate, discover more, assist others, and so much more. You can even strike new partnerships and joint venture deals in these forums. (The only thing we do not allow is blatant advertising).

You will have access to our very advanced forum system, and we also very much encourage you to join our Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn networks.

Get access to it all in the Club as part of your membership.

A great deal of self-help emphasizes overcoming your fears. Our fears, we’re told, are the reason we aren’t sky-diving millionaires with supermodel spouses right now.

A quick Google search shows over 3.2 million entries for “how to overcome fear.” The book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyways was a major best-seller. Clearly there is a demand from people wanting to overcome their fears and the army of authors and pundits is there to supply the solution.

Fear Isn’t the Biggest Problem

First, I want to claim that overcoming your fears is not the #1 obstacle to living the ideal life. I prefer Cal Newport’s suggestion that skill trumps courage. As I’ve written about here, the reason you aren’t a millionaire probably has more to do with not having the skills to earn a million dollars, and less to do with your fears.

However, even if fears aren’t the most important obstacle to overcome, they can still matter. Just as laziness, guilt, insecurity or any other psychological block can prevent you from making good decisions to improve your situation, your fears can hold you back.

You’re Afraid of Failure Because Failure Sucks

Sometimes your fears are legitimate.

If you’re afraid of quitting your job or dropping out of college to start a business, the fear of failure may be real. No, failing won’t kill you, but you may spin yourself into thousands of dollars of debt with nothing to show for it. Worse, you could have missed better opportunities to further your career.

If you’re afraid of asking a friend for a date, that fear may be real. The damage may be temporary, but you may sense that success isn’t likely and you may create awkwardness in your social group.

If you’re afraid to live in a foreign country, there may be some basis to that. If you don’t speak the language or don’t have an adaptable personality, the challenges of living abroad and being alone could be overwhelming.

Does this mean I think you shouldn’t pursue your ideal career, tell people how you feel about them or live abroad? Definitely not. I’ve done all those things. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t failed, or even that my fears were completely unjustified.

Being lost, broke or rejected are genuine consequences of real fears. The reason your fears are so difficult to overcome isn’t that they are irrational. The real reason is that, often, they are at least partially true.

Conquering Fears Requires More than Just Courage

To me telling someone to use courage to overcome fears is like telling a fat person to “stop eating so much.”

Sure, it’s true. Almost all weight-loss boils down to caloric restriction with exercise at some point. But is that helpful?

A better recommendation wouldn’t just use willpower, but emphasize on creating a system for reducing the desire to overeat. Keep less junk food in the house, stick to a pre-defined meal plan, learn to cook healthier foods. All of these are more practical suggestions.

Similarly, the “use courage” mantra isn’t very practical.

An Alternative: Engineer a Low Cost of Failure

If you accept that fears haunt us because they often have at least a partial basis in reality–and you accept that courage is often impractical advice, then there is another solution: reduce the cost of failure.

Engineering the situation so it has a lower cost of failure will make overcoming your fears a lot easier. Not because you’ll have more courage, but because a lot of your fears will go away, or at least reduce in intensity.

Take the fear of quitting your job. If, instead of quitting, you started your business part-time, that would drastically reduce the cost of failure. The worst-case scenario would be some lost time or less aggressive career growth at your current job.

Or what about the fear of asking someone on a date? If you can’t summon up the courage to go further, maybe make a smaller step forward. Spend more time with the person, make smaller moves and see if he or she reciprocates.

Flirting as a social practice may have developed primarily to engineer a lower cost of failure in dating. Linguist Steven Pinker devotes a chapter of his book using game theory to explain how ambiguous wording can save face if the other person isn’t interested.

How about living abroad? Even that is something that can be engineered to a lower cost of failure. Reduce the length of your trip. Travel to the region before deciding to live there. Maybe make a shorter stay away from your home environment to see if you can handle it.

Engineering Low Failure Costs Works Where Courage Can’t

The idea for this article came to me yesterday when I was cooking in my kitchen. I was trying a new recipe, and I was thinking about how the cost of failure often prevented me from experimenting with different cooking techniques. Often the win from discovering a new dish was outweighed by going hungry if it turned out poorly.

However, by making sure I had a quick backup meal if the first one failed, that made it far easier to experiment with new dishes. Also, allocating more time for cooking in my daily routine made the price of a ruined meal considerably lower.

Because I reduced the cost of failure, I’ve been experimenting with a lot more dishes. Last night I made kushari and before that I was making baba ghanoush. I’ve probably improved my cooking skill more in the last six months than I had in the six years prior to that.

The idea of using courage to improve my cooking skill seemed ridiculous. I wasn’t afraid of cooking new dishes, or if I was, I certainly wasn’t conscious of that fear. However, engineering a lower failure cost allowed me to tackle a problem that I had never considered before.

A common piece of advice is that perfectionism is bad. At least, that’s what you’d believe if you read an online article on the topic.

However, I feel the situation is more complex. Certainly some perfectionism is bad–it causes us to procrastinate, leave projects unfinished and become mired in self-criticism.

But, in some ways perfectionism is necessary. Stopping at “good enough” is an easy way to ensure you’ll never accomplish anything remarkable.

Good Perfectionism, Bad Perfectionism

There are two types of perfectionism:

1. Short-term perfectionism on a particular project, task or goal.
2. Long-term perfectionism on projects, tasks and goals, in general.

When most people rally against the threat of perfectionism, they are really attacking short-term perfectionism. This is the crippling form that says you must perfect something before you can finish.

Short-term perfectionism occurs when you spend weeks unemployed, polishing your resume without mailing it to any potential employers. Or spending eighteen months on a new Web 2.0 platform without releasing anything to see if there is actually a market. Or devoting half your exam time to finishing your first essay response–when you need to complete another five.

Short-term perfectionism is almost certainly bad. If these perfectionists just mailed their resumes, released earlier builds or completed question one, they would waste less time and accomplish more.

But just as short-term perfectionism is bad, long-term perfectionism can be crucial.

Good Enough for Now, Never Good Enough Forever

A long-term perfectionist isn’t held back by releasing. In fact, she probably finishes aggressively since finishing allows her to get feedback. Instead, she channels her perfectionism into an attitude that good enough is never a permanent state.

This breed of perfectionist embodies the attitude I believe is necessary to become insanely good at something. Because their drive to improve extends far beyond what is “good enough”, as declared by society, they often become a lot better than good enough.

Example #1: Perfectionist Bloggers

Ramit Sethi, is one of my favorite personal finance bloggers on the internet. But most people wouldn’t guess that he spends upwards of 15-17 hours writing an article.

Tim Ferriss, speaks here about the lengths he goes to in optimizing his webpage. He tracks data ruthlessly, analyzing what are the most popular posts, what are the best days to publish and split tests his website layout over geography to reveal cultural differences in his readership.

I recently had a conversation with Cal Newport. Even though he isn’t a full-time blogger (being an author and MIT postdoc take most of his time) he still uses embodies my view of the long-term perfectionist. Cal uses each article as a chance to deliberately practice specific writing techniques he has identified beforehand.

All these three people have gone well beyond “good enough”. They’ve probably gone beyond “great enough” as well, but that’s a different story. There lesson is twofold:

1. They publish regularly and frequently (so they are definitely not short-term perfectionists)
2. Even after success, they remain dedicated to the unending path of mastery.

Example #2: Being Funny is Hard Work

Jerry Seinfeld delivers a hilarious acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement in comedy. (Click here if the player won’t load)

Midway through the speech he comments:

“The truth is, the comedians should be the only ones getting awards. We’re the only ones that actually have to think of something original. Something funny, or interesting.

Do you know how hard that is? Do you know how hard it was to write what I am saying to you right now? It was really hard. This took a long time.”

Chances are, the joke you hear a successful stand-up say has been told for live audiences hundreds of times beforehand. Each repetition perfects the timing, word-choice, delivery and body language making even a seemingly effortless off-the-cuff remark a perfected product.

The lesson of comedians like Seinfeld is twofold again. They get up and practice frequently in-front of live audiences, so there is no short-term perfectionism crippling their progress. But also, many of them endlessly refine their approach so that they can anticipate every facet of an audiences reaction before a joke is told.

My Personal Example

Recently I launched a new learning tactics subscription. On the short-term I wasn’t a perfectionist. The program didn’t have a forum, I did the design for all the content myself and I didn’t even use a website–all the content was delivered via email. Instead of delaying, I launched with less to make sure there was actually a demand for the concept.

However, once I did confirm there was a demand, my long-term desire for perfection kicked in. I’m now putting in many hours to add the features initially missing from the program. I’ve also started taking surveys and maintaining spreadsheets to help test and improve the results people can see within the program.

I definitely don’t embody the split between long and short-term perfectionism ideally. But, it has been an attitude I’ve worked to add into the way I approach life.

There is No “Good Enough”…

…in the big picture, at least. And if the desire to finish isn’t coupled with a drive to go beyond “good enough” you probably won’t get either good or enough.

I’m Canadian, but I’m currently living in the south of France. And, for the last five months, I’ve been doing something I never would have considered back home.

I’m not talking about drinking wine, eating baguettes or speaking French (although I’ve been doing plenty of those things).

No, I’m talking about riding a bicycle.

For the last 5 months I’ve commuted with my bike practically everywhere. I’d guess I bike at least 5-10km every day. And, while I’ve occasionally had a bike in Canada, that becomes agonizingly impractical when there is several feet of snow.

Location as an Underrated Factor in Pursuing the Ideal Life

I believe location is an underrated factor in pursuing the ideal life, but not in the obvious way people assume.

The obvious assumption is usually spoken in stereotypes. New York is fast paced. Paris is romantic. And if you want to start a technology company, you have to move to San Francisco.

I won’t argue with the specifics of these stereotypes, since I’ve never lived in New York, Paris or San Francisco. Maybe all the things said about these types of places is completely true.

What I will argue is that your location can have an unexpected impact on your lifestyle beyond the details that are most obvious when choosing a place to live.

The Unexpected Impact of Geography

Bike riding is a perfect example. The idea of biking everywhere I go wasn’t something I thought of when imagining life in France. Indeed, if I had chosen to live in a larger city like Paris or Lyon, the metro stations would more probably be my major source of travel.

Despite this, I think bike riding has had a major impact on my day-to-day lifestyle. For one, by biking 5-10km per day out of necessity, I’ve been getting a lot of exercise. Second, I’ve spent more time outdoors, which if you’ve ever experienced a winter in Winnipeg, is definitely a plus.

Location Independence and Choosing the Perfect City to Live

For most people, location is simply a matter of opportunity. My parents had moved to find jobs, and many other people will locate themselves wherever makes sense for their career.

However, there are a growing number of people who are drawing the majority of their income from location independent sources. Freelancers, web entrepreneurs or even at-home workers could theoretically live anywhere.

I think once you remove the job demand criteria as the #1 factor for where to live, a whole new area opens up, namely, picking the perfect city for your ideal lifestyle.

And, I believe this decision becomes more complicated for the reason I previously mentioned. Most of the salient details of choosing the perfect city are hidden, or at least obscured by popular stereotypes.

Finding the Perfect City

I’ve just started this journey, so I can’t weigh opinions about which cities are best. However, I think there are a couple factors worth mentioning, that are guiding my process of finding it:

1. Perfect is time sensitive. The ideal city, I believe, will be different when you’re 25 to when you’re 55.
2. Perfect won’t be obvious. I can’t be sure, but I’d guess that the ideal cities for most people are probably places they haven’t heard of yet. Or at least given serious thought to. The most popular destinations are also the most expensive and crowded.
3. Perfect needs defining. The size, weather and infrastructure that makes Montpellier an ideal city for biking is part of my definition of a great city. It will be different for every individual.

Of course, I’m not ruling out the importance of building relationships within a particular location over time. My argument isn’t that the ideal way to live means being a perpetual traveler. There are benefits to just picking a spot and then getting to know your neighbors.

However, just as the person you marry will have a major impact on your life, I believe the same is true of the city you live in. And, for a growing number, that decision will no longer be based on job openings.

“Are you procrastinating?” my roommate asks me. Three exams the next day and I wasn’t studying.

“No, I laugh, procrastination means I intended to do some work. I never planned on working tonight, so technically it isn’t procrastination,” I respond.

This was a conversation I had last week, during an exam period. Although my review schedule before exams tends to be a lot lighter than most, the biggest difference isn’t the time. It’s that I refuse to use guilt as a motivation tactic.

Stress-Cases VS Relaxed Achievers

Here’s the process a typical stressed-out student or worker uses to motivate himself:

1. Worry.
2. Be unsure where to start.
3. Take a break.
4. Take another break.
5. Feel guilty about breaking for so long.
6. Do 15 minutes of work.
7. Chat on Facebook.
8. Repeat.

Although there are probably a lot of problems in this situation, I think the worst is step #5. When you use guilt as a motivation tool you increase your stress without accomplishing anything.

Worse, guilt tends to be a lousy motivator, resulting in a little bit of effort but nowhere near the effort needed to succeed with your plan.

Now contrast this approach to the way a relaxed, effective student motivates herself:

1. Worry. (Hey, sometimes you can’t help it)
2. Stop and form an action plan with specific tasks.
3. Create a list of the tasks to be done.
4. Break the list down to a daily basis.
5. Work hard to complete the tasks.
6. Relax guilt-free.

Instead of guilt, there is a system. It’s this system that not only creates the results, but eliminates the wasted stress and time.

The System Doesn’t Need to be Complicated

If I’m making it seem like the second approach requires a black-belt level of mastery in GTD, that’s not my intention. A system doesn’t need to be hard or complicated to still work extremely well in 95% of cases.

Here’s the system I’ve used for the last few years of relatively guilt-free work:

1. Make a to-do list.
2. Chunk that to-do list into a list just for today.
3. Complete the list, without adding new items when you finish it.

Now, this may sound too easy. Sure, this might work for some people, but my work is too difficult, my academic program too intensive and the competition too fierce to limit myself in this way.

Wrong on both counts.

First, that attitude is wrong because this system works even better the more difficult your program is. The systematic approach to productivity, with pre-established limits, excels when your workload is hellish.

I’ve used this approach when managing full-time classes, international competitions, two volunteer positions and a part-time business simultaneously. Cal Newport has used a similar restrictions-first approach to get a PhD at MIT, build a wildly successful blog and publish several books.

Don’t tell me you’re too busy. You’re too busy not to have a system.

Second, this attitude is wrong because it assumes guilt is even remotely effective. It’s not. Guilt may be used in the 5% of situations where your system breaks down. But when you’re using it on a regular basis, it wears out and becomes useless.

Studies have shown that willpower is an internal resource. If you use it up on one task, you have less of it for the next task. So if willpower is this scarce, why force 100% of your work to rely on it?

Martyrs of Busyness

The real reason a lot of people like using guilt is for a secondary benefit that has nothing to do with accomplishing anything: social status.

When you tell people you have a killer workload, you aren’t just complaining. You’re also trying to tell people you’re important enough to have a killer workload.

Some tribes put discs in their lips or brand tattoos. Ours walks around telling everyone how “busy” we are, grinding away hours of our life in half-productive work. Whose is more destructive?

Guilt Free and Accomplished

January 2010 was the second best month for income I’ve ever had on the website. It was the number one for direct income. My health and fitness are nearing a personal best, last week I was able to complete 10 one-arm pushups with each arm in a row. Academically my grades will likely be staying high during my year abroad, and I’ve made significant progress learning to speak French.

Despite this progress, I’ve been more relaxed this year than perhaps any in my life. Tonight will be my forth night out in a row, in a series of going-away parties for friends leaving France. I’ve enjoyed enough free time to practice my cooking, read more books and enjoy the weather, women and wine in the south of France.

I’m not saying this to brag, but to point out a contrast. In other years I’ve had considerably more stress, a lot of it being self-inflicted. Also, during those years I arguably accomplished less towards my main goals.

I think that’s evidence that the burnout, guilt-soaked approach to work not only isn’t sustainable, it often doesn’t even get the most done.

Imagine that your main goal in life was to have as much fun as possible. What would your life look like?

I’m asking this question because I reject the idea that the pursuit of fun, in its maximum, would result in a life of non-stop television, fast-food binging or substance abuse.

Instead I’d argue that, even if putting fun as the highest goal wouldn’t lead to the ideal life, there is still a considerable overlap. I want to make the case for two points:

1. That serious fun requires effort. Giving up all discipline and effort results in a local maxima of fun which is far lower than the maximum possible enjoyment.
2. That fun supports work-related and nobler goals, rather than distract from them.

Why People Don’t Like to Think About Fun

What if I told you that you weren’t maximally productive. That is, your current behaviors don’t accomplish the most for the time you invest, you probably wouldn’t require much persuading. After all, we all sense our deficiencies when it comes to procrastination or laziness.

But, if I told you that you weren’t getting the most fun, you might require more convincing. Somehow we feel that work is something that can be enhanced by analysis and introspection, but fun is not. Fun is something magical and trying to think about how to have more, destroys the very enjoyment we seek to create.

I’m not going to disagree with you. The act of trying to figure out how to have more fun, when you’re playing a game or socializing, usually makes the activity less fun. Fun is spontaneous, so thinking about it too much can undermine it.

However, while I believe a mindless, go-with-the-flow approach works best in the moment, that same logic doesn’t apply when structuring your life to have more fun.

Serious Fun Requires Sweat

Take travel as an example. You might feel that going on a trip will be more fun than staying at home and playing video games. But, the video games don’t require any advanced planning, whereas the travel might. So if you don’t apply any thought, you’ll end up staying at home.

Look at sports. Sports are a classic example of the frustration barrier. When you are lousy at a sport, it isn’t much fun to play. But as you gain skill, the sport can become almost obsessively interesting. If you didn’t apply the foresight to practice through the frustrating phase, you would never experience the intensely fun phase of mastery.

Being a connoisseur of fun doesn’t mean all your leisure time needs to require years of practice or planning. Instead it means that, as far as having fun is a worthy goal, there are benefits to putting some thought into designing a more entertaining life.

I’d rather live an adventurous life, which has richer fun experiences, than a merely entertaining one, which occupies itself with shallower fun.

Mindless Fun vs Serious Fun

I don’t want to categorize certain activities as always being mindless fun and others as being serious fun. I’m not going to say Shakespeare is inherently better than South Park, simply because I feel those comparisons are so corrupted by people using high art to signal status.

The difference isn’t the activity, it’s the way you pursue it.

Imagine one person watches television for six hours straight, because he has nothing better to do on a Friday night. Compare that to a person who, spends the same six hours watching television, but it’s in the deep appreciation of a favorite story. Reveling in the character details, completely fascinated by the broader themes of the work.

The difference is between being an aficionado and a drone.

Why Serious Fun Supports Serious Work

I don’t believe that fun is the ultimate aim in life. However, I do think it’s useful to think about because I feel fun supports other goals. If you’re saturated in adventures and enjoyment, those experiences enhance the other aspects of your life, rather than detract from them.

I get a lot of emails from people wanting to give up online gaming or partying so they can focus on working more. That’s fine, if in their honest assessment, they’ve decided that there are more satisfying ways to use their spare time.

However, in most cases, I feel people want to abandon these pursuits, not because they’ve found something better to replace it, but because they feel they should. That watching television, playing World of Warcraft or going to a club is working against their bigger goals.

I’ve fallen into this reasoning trap myself. I’ve previously written about giving up television, and while I enjoyed the challenge (I still don’t have a television), I think I pursued the goal for the wrong reasons.

Instead of trying to eliminate all those distracting sources of low productivity, I should have been embracing them. Embracing serious fun.

How Fun Improves Productivity

The truth is, for almost all my goals, if you asked me whether I’m more productive now or years earlier when I had a more obsessive focus on work, I wouldn’t have to think about it. I’m definitely more productive now.

I believe a big reason for this is that seriously pursuing fun, making sure life is as fun as possible, gives you the energy to put back into your more focused pursuits.

Again, however, I want to draw a distinction between mindless fun, which is usually done just to occupy time, and serious fun, which is the conscious effort to make your life as adventurous and entertaining as possible.

Making my life more fun has occurred on many levels:

• Improving my business, so that the creative work I find incredibly fun is something I can get paid for.
• Living abroad, so even acts like going to buy groceries are interesting challenges.
• Building my social network, so I’m connected to other people’s adventures.

Even more, it’s been accepting that the serious pursuit of fun is productive. And that the ideal life not only accomplished but thoroughly enjoyed.

Being good at things is the key to success. Painfully obvious, right?

That means being good, having mastered skills, ranks far higher than other commonly touted “keys” to success, such as:

• Overcoming fears
• Just getting started
• Rejecting societal norms
• Having the best attitude

Sure, being a terrified, procrastinating, peer-pressured, pessimist probably won’t help you master skills. But that doesn’t remove the fact that mastery, both in your career and in your personal life, is the most important element.

Why Being Skilled Matters

For your career, the argument is simple: we live in a capitalistic world where, all else being equal, the people with the rarest and most valuable skills get the biggest rewards. Assuming you can convert those rewards to what you desire in life (do you want a big house or location independence?), mastery leads to career success.

For your personal life, the argument is subtler but I believe the same logic applies. If you have skill, achieving success becomes easier in almost any area of life:

1. Health - mastering a sport or exercise routine will keep you healthy, while mastering your own habits and willpower can ensure that they stick.
2. Relationships - mastering your interpersonal communication helps, whether you’re trying to find a new relationship or sustain an existing one.
3. Learning - improving the way you learn has a ripple effect, where ideas you pick up can be integrated into any other area of life.

Even if you disagree that mastery is the most important element, I think most people can agree it is at least a very important part of living a successful life.

What Encourages Being Skilled?

The biggest gains in skill come when you are situated on edge of your current competence. If you stay with what you’re already good at, you won’t improve much.

Being way outside your level of skill isn’t conducive to mastery either. Unless you can receive positive feedback, or regular wins amidst failures, it is difficult to learn from your mistakes. The best way to train as a sprinter isn’t to run against Olympic athletes from day one. It’s to race against someone just a bit faster than you, so you’ll know when you make improvements.

Therefore, practicing for improvement should always be at the edge of incompetence. Where you have enough skill for positive reinforcement, but not enough skill to be considered good–yet.

Living on the Edge of Incompetence

If you accept the first premise: that mastery is an essential ingredient to successful living. And, you accept the second premise: that mastery requires an environment of being on the edge of your incompetence. Then the conclusion is difficult to escape: successful living requires living on the edge of incompetence.

For the last several years I’ve made a deliberate effort to live on my edge of incompetence. I make an effort to choose goals and projects that are not just difficult, but require skills I don’t currently possess.

In the business projects I’ve undertake with this blog and website, I’ve always chosen ones that were slightly outside my skill level. I wrote and designed a free ebook, then created one for sale, then created one with an affiliate program, finally now I finished a hybrid between an information product and a monthly coaching service.

Successfully executing the latest project would have been a certain failure a few years ago, but I slowly advanced my edge of incompetence. And I did that by living on it.

My other goals have also put me on the edge of incompetence. From learning French, taking salsa classes, practicing to cook more elaborate dishes or training to do a pistol squat and handstand pushups. The goals weren’t just difficult (although challenge is important) they also pushed me beyond my current skills.

Hard Goals vs Skill-Acquiring Goals

It’s possible to set a difficult goal that doesn’t explicitly require gaining new skills. For example, let’s say I set a goal to give up junk food. This might be a difficult goal, but after having done 30-Day Trials as a method for changing habits for years, it probably wouldn’t improve my skills significantly.

Similarly, I could set business goals that don’t really express what skills are going to improve. I have a goal to increase my business income to a minimum of $3000 per month. That will be a challenging goal to meet, but it doesn’t make it clear what skills I’ll need to improve and where I’ll be sitting on the edge of my incompetency.

Deciding exactly how a particular project will push you to learn new skills is an often neglected step. It’s the difference between aimless and deliberate practice.

Setting up Camp at the Edge of Incompetence

I feel, for many people, they want to get out of their edge of incompetence as soon as possible. It’s cold, painful and irritating outside. Far nicer to be safe and warm within your existing skills.

So when they live their life, the venture to the edge of their skills only lasts as long as it needs to be. When they need to pass a test, they study really hard. However, when the exam no longer threatens their security, they don’t bother reading a book on a difficult subject.

Not only do I feel this is suboptimal, since these people will only increase their skills when forced to, it is also a lousy way to live.

If you set up camp on the edge of your incompetency, you get used to scaling your frustrations and learn to tolerate the uncertainty. So when most people are complaining about being outside the comfortable home of their skills, you feel fine because you never closed the door.

Everyone procrastinates. Heck, you might be procrastinating right now by reading this, instead of doing something that should be done. That isn’t news.

What I feel is more interesting is where people procrastinate when we do. Even the most productive people have Achilles’ heels, types of tasks which they procrastinate on. Similarly, even the people who claim they have no willpower still have some work they always do on time.

Why is that? And how can you use that knowledge to fix the problem?

I’m a Productive… Except When I’m Not

I’m not superhuman. I have bouts of laziness, procrastination and every other typical human failing.

But, when it comes to my normal work, whether it is assignments for university, tasks for running my business or personal goals, I usually show up. I’ve written according to my 2-3x weekly schedule for this blog almost without exception for nearly 2 years.

I’ve also exercised for nearly 6 years 3-5x per week. I’d guess that in those past six years, I’ve never missed more than 2-3 weeks in a row, and only then because of travel or illness.

Despite that, I have my own Achilles’ heel. Certain types of tasks I’m no better than average at getting them done on time. Others, I forget to do, delay them when I remember and generally fare poorly at getting them done.

What’s my Achilles’ Heel? (And How That Can Help You Fix Yours)

In looking over my weekly/daily goals for the past few years, I would say there are two types of tasks I’m most likely to procrastinate on:

1. Maintenance tasks.
2. Non-routine errands.

Maintenance tasks are things like backing up my computer or website, reorganizing my filing system, tidying or doing laundry. For example, on that last point, I pushed doing laundry off my daily goals list for about 5 days before finally getting it done.

Non-routine errands are another weak-point for me. Things such as calling a support line to cancel a subscription or renewing a driver’s license. Especially if these things have no clear deadline (a subscription could renew indefinitely, unless I stop it).

Why do I procrastinate on these things? Also, how can the self-knowledge of your weak points allow you to improve on yours?

Two Reasons: One in the System, the Other in Motivation

The first reason certain tasks are procrastination trouble spots is that the system you use to organize your life doesn’t accommodate them well.

Obviously, if you used a system like GTD to the exact specifications, keeping every list and folder and using it perfectly, there wouldn’t be any tasks that don’t fit. But nobody uses those systems perfectly, and even if they do follow it closely there are certain types of work that will more easily slip through the cracks.

This seems to be a major reason errands occasionally are sources of procrastination for me. Because they don’t take much time, or have any significant advantage for completing them early, they don’t get much weight in my weekly/daily goals system. I do use a calendar to funnel date-sensitive tasks into the system, but if the errand has no deadline, W/D Goals tends to ignore it.

This is especially true with errands which may not get finished just because you invest time in them. Last year I continually procrastinated on making phone calls to difficult-to-reach people. The reason was simply that my productivity system didn’t manage those types of tasks well. If I call and get a busy signal, am I finished?

Correcting Systemic Errors

Fixing problems in your system usually isn’t too difficult. The solution is just to create a way of elegantly capturing those tasks so that you don’t forget about them. Defining deadlines for errands without deadlines will probably go a long way to solving my procrastination problem with these kinds of tasks.

The difficulty is sometimes in fixing a system problem, you make your life more complicated. Now instead of just having one to-do list, you have three. The bulkier your system, the less it pushes you to work. I’d rather have a 95% successful system that was ruthlessly simple, than a 99.5% system which was horrendously complex.

The Other Problem is Motivation

The other reason for an Achilles’ heel is psychological. There are certain types of tasks that you just don’t like to do.

I think maintenance tasks fall into this category for me. In theory, they shouldn’t be procrastinated in my W/D Goals system. Exercise and blogging are similar tasks in terms of work, frequency and consistency, but I rarely have procrastination issues with them.

Somehow, backing up my website or reorganizing my filing system just feels a lot less satisfying than finishing a blog article or going to the gym.

I could give up and claim that the situation is intractable. That blog writing and exercising are just naturally more fun, so I’ll always be doomed to procrastinate on the other items. But that isn’t really my style.

Instead, I’d like to probe into why I don’t have motivation to do these tasks, and maybe see the beginnings of how to correct it.

Looking deeper, I think the main reasons I lack motivation to work on these tasks is that:

1. Deep down, I don’t feel they accomplish anything meaningful.
2. I don’t take much pride in their completion.

Now for some maintenance tasks (polishing cutlery, for example) these two points are probably true. But that’s probably why I never put them on my to-do list in the first place.

The problem here seems to be that consciously I recognize that regular backups or reorganizations are necessary and important, but I don’t sense that on a gut level. Second, I don’t reward myself enough for sustaining these types of maintenance tasks. I congratulate myself for keeping the blog regularly updated and feel guilty if I don’t exercise, but I don’t have the same internal rewards for keeping my desk tidy.

Obviously recognition of these motivational weak spots is just the first step. The next is to start installing habits to correct it. That will take more time and effort, but it isn’t an impossible problem to solve.

However, just as I have current procrastination weak spots, I used to have even more, and patient habit adoption helped cure many (if not all) of those weak points.

How to Spot Your Motivational Weak Spots

I think just about anyone here could go through a similar process to what I went through. Starting with fixing the gaps in your productivity system and then identifying why you don’t put energy into accomplishing certain types of tasks.

Procrastination strikes unevenly. Fixing the weakest links strengthen the entire chain, so spotting these glitches in your approach can have a huge impact.

A big learning point for me over the last few months has been rejecting the common online wisdom of “passive” income. “You want to earn money while you sleep,” goes the rhetoric, “if you need to be there to earn a dollar, that work can’t scale!”

My rejection isn’t based on passive income being bad, or even undesirable. Simply that needing passive income is a good problem to have. For most people, the problem isn’t that there business doesn’t have enough “passive” income, but it doesn’t have enough income, period.

Lack of Scale is a Good Problem to Have

If your #1 problem when running a small business or doing freelance work is that your time doesn’t scale, you are probably doing very well.

Think about it. If you’re active complaint is scale, that means (usually) two things:

1. You are already well-paid for your time.
2. You have more lucrative clients, or business opportunities, than you can handle.

If these two things aren’t the case, scale shouldn’t be your #1 priority. Figure out how to earn a decent business or freelancing income before worrying about how to make it more passive.

Don’t Focus on Scale Too Early

I think a big mistake I made in the earlier running of this blog was to fall for the passive income rhetoric.

I was hesitant to let people know I responded to emails because, hey, that activity won’t scale and it will eventually reach a point where I can’t handle the volume. The thing I forgot was the word “eventually” and that, in the meantime, my ability to interact with people and respond to every email was a personal strength.

I ignored business opportunities that might not scale perfectly. Earlier, I rejected ideas of membership-based programs that involved coaching from my part because, in theory, I could only serve a certain number of people. So, instead I focused strictly on ebooks or other goods that could scale from zero to infinity.

The thing I forgot was that if you spend a month writing an ebook and only sell 30 copies, that still isn’t a lot of value for your work. Doing that same work for 100 people, even if it can’t scale to 1 million, can be more profitable and personally rewarding.

The Online World Hates Perfect Scaling

To borrow a line of reasoning from Chris Andersons’s excellent book, Free, the online world doesn’t like paying for things with perfect scale. When you do, there are forces which work against you.

So, when you decide to create an ebook, you have a product that can scale perfectly. You also have something which can be pirated easily. I once found a torrent of one of my ebooks with nearly 10,000 downloads and several highly positive reviews. Um… thanks?

With unscalable products you also have to face a higher level competition. Maybe this isn’t so much a problem in the blogosphere, but if you were starting a web 2.0 service, it might be. How can you make an excellent service that people will pay for, when Google is giving it away for free?

It’s not impossible, and I know many people who have succeeded with purely passive income business models. But I feel, for new entrepreneurs or freelancers, scale shouldn’t be a priority. Worrying about scale comes when you’re sold-out and making bank.

Early scale worries are delusions of grandeur.

How Rejecting Scale Helped My Business

It turns out, as much as the impersonal forces of the online world hate scale, they love its opposite. They love things that can’t scale.

I mentioned yesterday I sold out enrollment in a rapid learning program I was offering in 36 minutes. There were probably many reasons for this. But, I feel a big one was that I was only offering 100 spots. The program lacked theoretical scalability because I was offering feedback and coaching as part of the package.

Just as you value a handwritten thank-you card more than an automatic email, value is tied (in part) to perceptions of marginal cost.

While it may have lacked scale, in theory, in practice that means potentially adding an important revenue source to my business which will help it survive as a full-time income source. And I’d rather have full-time income with imperfect scaling, doing what I love, than a perfectly scalable business and still need a job.