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What Makes a Great Morning Routine?
Hopefully, we all wake up every day. Unfortunately, some did not wake up this morning and some will not wake up tomorrow morning. That is just the cold, hard truth. How can we make the most of each day? How do the most successful start off their day to ensure each day ends in success? I have studied successful people and their morning routines for a decade now and have found certain principles that work best to start each day with power! Let’s dive in!
Gratitude
If you have ever watched an interview with Tony Robbins, when asked about how he starts his day, he always refers to starting his day with gratitude. During his stretching and warming up, Tony will recite everything he is grateful for. This can be something we overlook daily. We don’t grasp the concept that we have something to be grateful for. It is so easy to get trapped in “I don’t have anything to be grateful for.” We will often look at it more as:
My house sucks! It’s falling apart, it’s too small, my landlord is an ass!
I hate my job! My boss is an ass! I don’t get paid enough!
My husband/wife is such a jerk! They don’t pay attention to me!
My kids don’t listen! They tear up the house! They never clean their messes!
It is easy to get sucked into the negative. Until you look at your life for what it truly is. YOU, yes you, have things that other people only dream about. Imagine being a homeless person who dreams of having a warm home, with a comfortable bed, and a bathtub to take a hot shower every day. Could you imagine? They would do anything even to have that house you spend your days complaining about!
Or how about the food in your refrigerator? Your cabinets? Could you imagine having to beg someone just to be able to eat? To have to rely on the good hearts of others or starve? I’m sure you could be grateful for the fact that you have meals at your disposal.
Do you see now? There are so many things we take for granted every single day. We should be grateful. Even for something as simple as a glass of water. There are hundreds of thousands of people around the world that don’t have access to clean drinking water every day. We are blessed my friend. Gratitude is an amazing way to start the day, and bring our blessings into perspective.
The Power of Clarity
Clarity is one of the most powerful things I have found to begin each day. Instead of just gambling about through the day, we start our day with intention and purpose. When we start our day with clarity, we know what we want to accomplish, what we are going to do to accomplish this goal, and who we are going to serve in accomplishing this goal.
How do we start our day with clarity you ask? I do so with three practices. Let’s explore deeper!
Braving the Cold: Cold Shower That Is!
If you have not heard my episode about the benefits of a cold shower, you can check it out here:
When I was first told to take a cold shower, I thought they were crazy! There was no way in hell people actually just stand in an ice-cold shower every morning. However hesitant, I did it. Since, I’ve never looked back. Sure, you can start your morning with coffee. You can start with Red Bull. Red Bull gives you wiiiiings, right? Well starting your day with a cold shower lights a rocket under your butt! It gets your adrenaline pumping, waking you up much faster than caffeine. It jump starts your brain (almost literally), and has an array of health benefits! (Check out the link to go more in depth) This practice will bring you clear thoughts, creativity, and attention to detail, guaranteed!
A lot of people frown upon the practice of meditation. I myself have been judged many times and called things such as “worshipping the devil” because of my meditation practices. Meditation is not about worshipping anything. It’s not about crossing into other dimensions, or other worlds or any of that other stuff people think.
Meditation is about being present in the moment. It is about brining peace, calm and stillness to yourself. Once you find yourself calm, still and relaxed, your subconscious mind can begin to work and bring forth all of the things you are thinking about that you don’t know you are thinking about. (You may have to read that again, sorry) Meditation helps determine root causes or explanations for your actions or motives. Meditation is your time to learn about you.
My morning meditation practice lasts fifteen minutes. When I’m done, I feel refreshed, open-minded and prepared to face even my most difficult tasks of the day.
Okay, remember in school years when your friends would make fun and say “Ooooh you got a diary!” No? Ok maybe it was just me. But anyway. I have always kept some sort of journal. Most of the time it was filled with my angry thoughts to get them out of my head. Other pages were filled with song lyrics, poems, etc. Journaling is an amazing, and I mean AMAZING practice for clarity. Journaling allows us to be vulnerable and honest with ourselves. When it is us versus ourselves, there’s no reason to be dishonest.
During journaling time, it is the perfect time to ask the hard questions. What do I want to do with my life? Why do I want to do that? Why do I do this? What is my purpose in life? When you become open and honest with yourself, you allow yourself to work through these questions. Along with the meditation and waking up your subconscious mind, you can go deeper and find more meaning.
So explore! Ask yourself those hard questions. Be vulnerable! You may just learn something about yourself you didn’t know. I did, and I can honestly say it has made me better, stronger.
THREE CORE PRINCIPLES TO EVERY MORNING ROUTINE
So we have discussed what I believe are the three most important pillars to a strong start to an even stronger day. So, let’s refresh!
Gratitude: Never take anything for granted! You always have something to be grateful for. Your house, your job, your car, your spouse, children, parents, siblings, friends, cousins, co-workers, neighbors, food, water, electricity, your bed, your pets. The list goes on and on!
Clarity: Bring a sense of clarity to your day and understand what you plan to accomplish and why. Understanding this going into the day makes each task much easier.
Even though it wasn’t discussed, the final pillar is PURPOSE. The reason purpose wasn’t discussed is because I can not determine what your purpose is. If you are reading this blog, hopefully you have already determined your purpose. By combining gratitude and clarity, your purpose will be easy to achieve. By combining gratitude and clarity, your purpose will also become easy to find. Dig deep!
IF YOU STRUGGLE WITH YOUR PURPOSE, OR WANT HELP IN REGARDS TO SEARCHING, REACH OUT ANY TIME AT COACHWITHRYAN@ICLOUD.COM. YOU MAY ALSO REACH OUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA!
Follow me on social media and say hello! I’d love to hear what you think about the content! There’s always more on my social media pages for more motivation, inspiration, and good old fashioned conversation! See you there!
Welcome back to the blog! This is an interview from my podcast, “The Unstruggle Mindset Podcast”. In this episode, I have invited Lauren Crooks onto the show to discuss her limitations and struggles living with Gastroparesis. You can watch the interview here! While you are there, subscribe to my channel for more great, informative content!
Ryan: So we will get started. So I’ve been doing a lot of research since I’ve been following your journey about the gastro-paresis and I haven’t been able to find a whole lot about it. So that’s why I wanted to get you on the show to kind of because there’s really no expert like somebody that has to live through the shit. So for those that are watching, could you tell a little bit about yourself, explain who you are, and then a little bit about what gastroparesis is?
Lauren Crooks: Okay. So I’m Lauren and I am 37. I’ve been suffering with extreme gastric issues for probably about six years. And it took me about, I would say about two years to get the proper diagnosis. Every doctor that I was going to was saying that it was just anxiety and that it was all in my head or that it was just IBS. So they started treating me for IBS. And once they were treating me for IBS, which the main treatment for that is they just tell you to pound a lot of fiber. Help yourself go to the bathroom, things like that. So for some reason I kept getting sicker. I couldn’t figure out why an organ. And they just kept saying, well, it must be anxiety. It must be in your head because there’s nothing wrong with you. We don’t see anything wrong.
Your blood works completely normal. So they were like, “Well, it must be in your head.” So finally I was like, “Well, okay. Well maybe it is.” I couldn’t explain it. So I actually went to a psychologist and talked to him several times and he looked at me and he was like, “Lauren, I do think you have anxiety and this and that.” And he was like, “But you’re sick. This is not anything that I can help you with.”
Ryan: Right.
Lauren: So I found a very awesome primary care doctor who I cannot say enough amazing things about. I went straight to him and told him all my symptoms. And I was like, “I’ve been researching a lot. I feel like there’s definitely something wrong.” Any wild theory that I threw at him. He was like, “All right, let’s test it. Let’s do it.” He was like, “I got the best gastric doctor in the world.” He was like, “I’ll send you to her.” I went to see her first visit. I finally got my official diagnosis.
Ryan: So, it took you two years to get diagnosed?
Lauren: I would say roughly, yeah.
Ryan: Wow. So upon your journey, I know you said you had a really good doctor, but upon your journey, since you’ve had the actual diagnosis, how would you say that your medical treatment has been as far as nipping it in the bud?
Lauren: Well, my doctor that diagnosed me with, she is a fricking genius. This whole disease is all she studies. She works at a Motility clinic here and people come from all over the east coast to come see her. Because the next closest GI Motility clinic that deals with this kind of stuff is in Cleveland. And then the next one is in Mayo clinic. So, that’s pretty far. So people come from all over the world or all over the United States over here to see her. So when I was in there, getting one of my tests done to rule out or diagnose gastro-paresis, I was sitting in there and there was like 10 people in the waiting room. And there was a girl in there that was from New York. There was a girl from Indiana. There was a girl from three hours down in Kentucky.
So she sees everybody from so far. But the problem that I have with her is she has so many patients, because nobody understands this besides them. So I feel like our quality of care is kind of lacks a little bit. Because she doesn’t have enough time to dedicate to her patients as your typical doctor would.
Ryan: Right.
Lauren: But I mean, she does have a portal and I can email her right now. I mean, it’s 10:15. I can email her right now. And if she didn’t message me back within the next two hours, she would when she got up at five in the morning.
Ryan: Wow.
Lauren: So anytime I want to try like a new med or anything, she’s never had a problem trying anything.
Ryan: That’s good. So what would you say are your biggest limitations? And I know I’ve been following your post on Facebook and watching how things progress and it looks like pure hell. So I just wanted to know from your standpoint, what are your greatest limitations struggling with this?
Lauren: Eating is the worst. People don’t realize how much your life actually revolves around eating. And you don’t realize the pleasure that you have when you actually eat food. I forgot what it felt like to be hungry for like two years. I lived off of probably about eight ounces of water and all I would eat would be spoonfuls of peanut butter throughout the day. That was all I could live off of for a while. So I completely forgot what it felt like to be hungry. Now that my treatments worked a little bit and I can eat again, I’m like, damn. It feels pretty good. There’s a euphoria that you get that people don’t realize that people take that for granted. And I think work is pretty difficult. My social life is pretty difficult because not only can we not eat and food makes us sick, but we also lack the ability to absorb our nutrients from food and vitamins.
So, I don’t have any B12 whatsoever. My vitamin D, my potassium crashed, my calcium crashed. And then now I’ve just found out I’m severely anemic and I’m going to have to be doing infusion soon. So I don’t really have a lot of energy to do anything. So for me to go to work, I pretty much have to go to work and come home immediately get in bed and stay in bed until I have to get up the next day.
Ryan: Oh my gosh.
Lauren: So I really don’t have much of a social life. I used to go to concerts all the time. And if I were to want to go to a concert and really rock out and have a really good time, I would have to prepare myself for a couple of days prior. And then I would probably pay for about a day or two afterwards and wouldn’t be able to get out of bed. And that’s a misconception that I hate about this disease is because, people were like, “Oh, she was out in Washington at a concert last night. She’s fine. She’s not really that sick.” But they don’t see the two days that I’m in my bed crying like, “Oh my God, why did I do this to myself?”
Ryan: Right. Well, I mean, I can understand where you would have to make that sacrifice just to have something that feels kind of normal in your life because you can’t just sit and waste away and just do nothing in just like, “Well, this is my life then.”
Lauren: I’ve never been that kind of person. I’ve always been kind of go, go, go. I just want to be out doing something all the time. And once I wasn’t really able to do that, I feel like the mental aspect of this disease is just as bad if not worse at times.
Ryan: Right. And that kind of segues kind of into my next question, because my podcast, I focus a lot about mindset and about positivity and things like that. And I know that from watching your Facebook posts and things like that, I know I’ve seen your flares where you’ve had the severe bloating and things like that, and…
Lauren: I’ve got one now!
Ryan: I could imagine physically, it’s got to be hell on you. But mentally, from a mindset, you share the memory from your Facebook of you walking down the street with the IV pole dancing, and you were talking about how you wouldn’t let the disease break your personality. So my question to you is how have you been able to stay yourself and separate yourself from being a victim of the disease? You keep your personality. You seem to be kind of still the upbeat kind of happy all the time, kind of deal.
Lauren: I’m really not. I try to be that way more so for like other people. It’s really hard not to lose yourself in that. Because I’m still kind of, I feel like I’m still new to it compared to a lot of people that I do know that have these issues. I do relatively well on that aspect, they would say. But if you knew me personally, you wouldn’t think that I did. It’s very hard to separate yourself from the disease because I have to plan my entire day around my symptoms and my disease and what I’m going to do. As soon as I wake up, I have to take medicine, then I’m like, “All right, what does my stomach… What does it feel like I can tolerate that I can eat today.” So then I eat and then I’m like, “All right, am I going to have to spend an hour in the bathroom before I go somewhere?”
How bloated am I? What size clothes do I wear today?” And then it’s like, “Okay.” And then by that time, it’s like, I’ve eaten. So then I’m like, “Well, now I’ve got to take more meds because now I got to combat those symptoms that just happened.” So I mean, it’s really extremely exhausting. It’s like an all day thing. I try to make light of the situations and laugh. Like when I get a big bloat, I’m like, “Oh, let’s name the bloat. Let’s name my baby.” I try to do something stupid or funny, like that. But the main thing that keeps me saying really is my fiance is great about it because he’s a very, very positive person. We’re kind of a polar opposites in that way. Because I’m kind of, I have a lot of negativity. So besides him and my animals, if I didn’t have either one of those, I don’t know where I’d be right now, to be honest with you.
Ryan: So I know you just mentioned that you actually… Do you actually have to keep different size clothes depending on the day?
Lauren: Yeah. I have about three to four different sized jeans that I can wear depending on the day. Some days I can’t wear jeans. Some days I have to wear sweat pants because my jeans just aren’t going to button depending on how bad my bloat is.
Ryan: Oh my goodness. Now I was looking… Like I said, I’ve done research and I’ve found a bunch of clinical trials, but I’ve found absolutely no results for those clinical trials. But I did find that, a lot of pain meds that they would normally give for stuff like this can actually make the symptoms of gastroparesis worse?
Lauren: That’s because a lot of us suffer with extreme constipation. I mean, you can go either way. Like one person, we may have the same exact symptoms, but one person have extreme diarrhea all the time, which I had a friend that’s like that. Or one person can never go to the bathroom at all. And that’s where the problem for pain management comes in for people like me, because those calls extreme constipation and a lot of drugs like that slow your motility down even worse. So if we’re already not digesting our food, it’s not going to.
Ryan: Right. Now you said your fiancé is there with you. So I just had a kind of question I wanted to kind of point his way. Of course, Lauren, for you it’s difficult living with this every single day. And I’m so glad that you have a good support network, but Josh for you, how has it been for you being the person from the outside, looking in, watching her go through these struggles and how has the disease affected your relationship?
Josh: It can be frustrating because you’re pretty much helpless in the situation. There’s not much I can do. So I do try to be just like a beacon of positivity, maybe to an annoying extent sometimes. But no, that’s really all I can do because I just feel very helpless sometimes. And that’s really… That’s an awful feeling. The person you love and you’re just, there’s really nothing you can do.
Ryan: Right. I know I’ve seen a… I believe, I think I seen a post a couple of months ago. You all tried to go on vacation and Lauren you actually ended up stuck up in the room, sick from everything and wasn’t able to enjoy anything.
Lauren: Yeah. We were going to go to magic kingdom that day actually, and my body had other plans.
Ryan: So how do you guys stay strong in your relationship with everything going on? I’m sure Josh, you had to go to work and then Lauren, you had to go to work and then when you’re at home together, is it always laying in bed and things like that? Or do you have the good days and the bad days or?
Josh: There’s definitely good days and bad days without a doubt. We just push through the bad days and we just enjoy the good days to the fullest extent that we possibly can.
Ryan: That’s good. All right. Awesome. So let me see here. I think that’s all the questions that I had. So Lauren, for all the people that are tuning in and they have no idea, how would you explain gastro-paresis to the average Joe?
Lauren: Have you ever had a really bad stomach bug?
Ryan: Actually I did like two weeks ago!
Lauren: Well imagine that being 24/7. There’s not a day or a moment that I don’t feel some sort of discomfort in sick or in some sort of pain. People think that just because like, “Oh, she ate a little bit today. She’s not feeling bad.” It’s like, no. I feel bad every time I eat certain things that are just worse than others. It’s just hard. I just wish people understood that just because I don’t physically look sick, that it must not be real. A lot of people were like, “Oh, she’s a hypochondriac because this is rare. Nobody’s heard of it. It’s just another stomach ache.” And I’m really tired of that misconception that it’s just another stomach ache. Because it’s not. I’ll show you that this is what I live with every day.
Ryan: Oh my goodness.
Lauren: Yeah. And this happened before I even ate anything. I just ate a little bit ago. And actually I feel like I’m going to puke already since just being on this call. So…
Ryan: Oh my gosh.
Lauren: I feel like I’m going to blow. Or I feel like I’m going to pop pretty much 24/7. And it pushes everything up in your throat. So sometimes I’m scared even to bend over to tie my shoe. Because I’m like, “Oh, everything’s going to come flying out.” So…
Oh my gosh.
Lauren: It’s not time. And it’s not just the stomach. That’s the biggest thing that I want people to understand is just because you don’t look sick doesn’t mean… Invisible doesn’t mean it’s not real.
Ryan: Right. Now I don’t want to bring up the negative or anything. But do you have those people that say that you just do it for attention or something like that?
Lauren: I’ve had those people. Yeah. I’ve even had family members saying, “Oh, well.” I’ve had some family members say some shitty things to me too. Saying that, it’s just, well, I need to eat. “She needs to eat more or she’s too skinny. Or she needs to just do this. This is what my neighbor does.” I hate when people say, “Oh, well just do this. This is what works.” Because that’s the horrible thing about this disease is that it’s so different for everybody. So it makes it hard to find a cure because there’s no common denominator with anybody. There’s so many things that cause it. With me, they’re not a hundred percent sure what caused it. They think that I have this rare antibody issues. So that’s why I’m on this treatment every week or every other week now. But that’s just the thing that I hate the most. People were like, “Oh, she looks good. She’s pretty, she’s fine. She’s she’s not sick.”
Ryan: Right. And then I seen that…
Lauren: No, I’m glad I don’t look like I feel because it, I would probably look like a skeleton.
Ryan: Right. Now I’ve seen that you actually had to have a port put in for medication.
Lauren: Yeah. That was because the main reason for that was because I can’t drink water. Honestly, water is the thing that makes us the most sick for some reason. So I have to give myself a liter of fluids every day. And when I don’t give myself those fluids, I can definitely tell a huge difference. My doctors said that I was so dehydrated. I was on the verge of probably having a heart attack and possibly dying from it. So I’m very glad that my team was very quick to get all the ball rolling on the fluids and all that stuff. Because this time last year, I honestly, it’s kind of scary to think of where I would be right now if I kept going the way it was this time last year.
Ryan: Yeah. So with everything going on in your life, and I know you just got some disturbing news yesterday with your insurance company and things like that. So moving forward, what are your hopes for the future for gastroparesis as a whole?
Lauren: I really hope that we can find more treatment options for people. I really hope to spread more awareness. That’s why I’m always so raw and open. I’m an open book. I have no problem telling anybody, the worst day I’ve ever had, because I feel like the only reason that people would ever find a cure is if they knew how awful it actually is. And if people just keep thinking, “Oh, she’s just got a stomach ache. She’s just bloated.” People aren’t going to see it for the severity that it is. But there’s a lot of us that are dying and I’ve known several people just in the few short years I’ve been diagnosed that I got close with it have already passed away from it. So it can be deadly. So… And there’s no cure. Yeah. It is a progressive illness also. So some people will never progress. One in three people can get better.
Ryan: Right.
Lauren: Unfortunately I’m not one of those three.
Ryan: Well, I mean, you’re doing the best you can do. I mean, you’re one tough ass chick. You go through everything and with everything going on, I know locally in Louisville people will still remember when you spoke out against Tim Stark and wildlife In Need. So you’re still out there taking charge.
Lauren: Oh, Tim. Fuck him. Yes. I will forever say that when I hear his name.
There [crosstalk 00:20:02] which is really funny. Those people actually attacked me for my health and was saying that I was making everything up and I just wanted attention. Some of those people were actually calling, trying to call my doctors and say that I was faking this and trying to get me off my treatment and telling them all kinds of fucking crazy things. So I’ve been pretty attacked by that group of people. So…
Ryan: Oh my gosh.
Lauren: But you know what? The animals are safe. So I did my job and-
Ryan: Exactly.
All those awesome women that stood up with me to do it. It was worth every fucking second of it.
Ryan: Awesome.
Lauren: It’s funny. He’s always like, “Oh, slit her throat. I’ll kill her.” I’m like, “Well, good news, bro. I’m dying anyway. Put me out of my misery. It doesn’t affect me.” He just makes me laugh. He’s a fucking train wreck of a person.
Ryan: Well, I thank you so much for your time, Lauren and I hope this podcast can get out and get heard and we can get some kind of awareness going around. And thank you for just taking your time and what you do to try to make the world a better place and try to bring some kind of awareness for other people, not just yourself.
Lauren: I feel like if it can help one person, if I can help one person, then my job is successful.
Ryan: Awesome. All right. Well thank you so much for your time. And I hope… I want to say, I hope everything gets better, but it’s one of them things that I hope your treatment goes well, and I hope your insurance company pulls their head out of their ass.
Lauren: Yeah, that’d be great.
Ryan: All right. Well thank you Josh for sticking in with us and thank you guys so much. See you guys later.
Me posing, trying to look cool with my Mojave Ball Python, one of ten of my snakes I own.
Welcome back! I’m so grateful that you took the time today to stick with this series as we begin episode 2 of my new series “What Are You Good At?” If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out episode 1 of the series where I covered how to tell if what you want to do is either your true passion, or if it is just a phase to pass through on your journey to living your passion. My sole purpose is to inspire and motivate each person who reads this to dig deep into themselves and discover true passion, true happiness, and a way to live this passion every single day.
In this episode, we are going to explore deeper into ourselves and decide, is what we want to do our passion, or is it a hobby? Now I know what you’re thinking. “Ryan, can’t we be passionate about a hobby?” And of course we can! I mean, if we are doing anything that we are not passionate about, is it truly worth doing? Not in my book. And why would you want to? Our main goal is to find our happiness in life, right? So let’s go a little deeper and magnify this topic.
What do I Mean by Hobby?
I will start off with an example for you from my personal life. If you have noticed, this blog is “Ry the Reptile Guy Presents: gRYnd Tyme. This is my personal “business” idea. So three years ago, I bought my first snake and from there began my obsession with caring for animals. Most of my animals are reptiles. I own ten snakes and 4 lizards, including 2 larger lizard species. I absolutely love my animals, and I find joy and peace in caring for them and spending time with them. About a year ago now, I decided I wanted to start my own reptile business.
My reptile business would consist of performing educational shows about reptiles and animals in general to groups of anyone who wanted to learn about them. A secondary part of the business would be breeding and selling snakes like Ball Pythons, Corn Snakes, Boa Constrictors, and Reticulated Pythons. Now, this doesn’t mean my plan was to turn my collection into a sweat shop. But there is a beauty about creating life and nothing is more beautiful than a baby snake. Google it, I dare you. Even if you hate snakes or find yourself repulsed by them, you’ll let out a small “Awww” when you see a baby ball python. But anyway, I’m getting off topic.
Because of my business idea, I hit the books and the internet and began to study business myself. I bought numerous books, checked out more from the library, and watched hours of YouTube videos. The first book I purchased was “Be Obsessed or Be Average” by Grant Cardone. Because I was already obsessed with my animals, I just needed to fine tune that obsession into a business sense. So I studied and studied, hours and hours. The hours turned to days, the days to weeks, and the weeks to months. I studied everything from copywriting to website development.
But one day something clicked in my brain. i had totally changed myself and my mindset. I had discovered that I was obsessed with business! I loved everything about it! I loved learning. I loved developing new skills. Then, came the birth of this blog. I had found that my sole purpose was to be a life coach, and help people like me find their true passion and convert it into a business for themselves. And that, my friends, is why I am here.
Do you see what happened there? If not, it’s okay. I know i have a tendency to rant and ramble. I apologize, but let’s clarify.
Business Timeline for my Life Coaching business, highly accredited to my passion for reptiles.
So you see, my reptiles became a hobby for me that I could actually use to escape my work and simply enjoy my time. I’m still passionate about reptile keeping, I still care for my animals to the best of my abilities, and I still absolutely adore animals. From my hobby, lead to an entirely different road, but a road worth traveling because the impact I could have on the world is significantly better than providing baby snakes to reptile lovers.
That is my example from my personal journey. So now, let’s look into your journey.
Could You Do Your “Passion” For Free?
George Nakashima, Famous Wood Worker & Architect
Let’s go back to the first episode of the series. The accountant who discovered their true passion was woodworking. They have bills to pay and financial obligations. However, they took the leap of faith! They spent weeks in the garage, creating works to build their gallery. Once they had a few pieces, they created a sole proprietorship, built a website to sell their art, and brought to life their new business. By day your average accountant, by night an artist. Long days, less sleep, and a lot of coffee later, they were living their passion. But they hadn’t sold anything yet.
So even though they felt so much more alive, they hadn’t actually made money. Countless hours of crafting masterpieces for nothing (at this point). Could you do that? Would you do that? Hours of your life, gone, for free. If not, I’m sorry, but your “it” is not your passion.
I say this not to hurt feelings or to make you second guess yourself, but it is true. As I write this article, I am not getting paid to do so. Could I one day? Very possible. But I use this to transform my passion into helpful words that will inspire and therefore, bring life to my purpose. Even if I make nothing, if these articles convince someone to stop trading hours for dollars at a corporate job and chase true freedom, that is payment enough for me.
This passion is not about money for me. It is about people like me. People who have tried to attend college for a degree to better their lives, but changed majors more than they’ve actually attended class. For people who have worked countless jobs, simply to chase a higher dollar amount. And for people who work so much just to survive and find themselves unable to enjoy any portion of their life. I know, that’s pretty deep. But that’s where I found myself. Until that day that my hobby showed me my true purpose. I want that for you. Yes, you. Reading this article right now.
If you need any help, or would like to discuss life coaching, feel free to message me at anytime. I am here for you 24/7/365.
I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read this article and I greatly appreciate any support of my materials. Let me know in the comments how you feel about this topic!
You can follow the blog, subscribe to my podcast and vlog, and follow me on social media!
As always, feel free to contact me via e-mail at abundantlyfenmind@gmail.com
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If you have been following this blog, you will realize that it has been vacant for a little over a month. I want to bring this to light in this article. What does failure mean? What does it mean to you? To me, it really is nothing more than a tool for education. Failure is a lesson in what not to do. But failure is the main reason most people give up on their dreams and settle for mediocrity.
But is this the only option? Is failure permanent? I want to dive deep into this subject.
What Happened To Me
Over the past three years, it has been a non-stop rollercoaster ride. I have learned so many things and have taken in advice from so many industry leaders. I have listened to and read for hours every day from people such Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynechuk, Brendon Burchard, Evan Carmichael, Tom Bilyeu, Rob Dial, Dean Graziosi, Tony Robbins, and many others. I have filled my brain with the philosophies and ideology of many successful people.
I took the advice of many and set my sights on hitting social media and established my brand and my name as a professional. Within a month’s time I was accessible via Facebook, Instagram, youTube, Linked In, TikTok, Twitter, this blog, and my podcast “gRYnd Tyme with Ry the Reptile Guy”. I started implementing the theories of Gary Vaynerchuk and set my goal to post as many times daily on every social media platform. I did fairly well for some time. But between working a full-time job, spending time with my family, caring for my animals, studying and reading, and helping my wife around the house, I quickly fell into a downward spiral.
Day in and day out I found myself running in circles trying to accomplish everything. When I began this journey, I was working 6pm-6am nearly every day, waking up after merely 4 hours of sleep in order to achieve every goal I had set for the day. It didn’t take long before I burned out. I realize now that I had simply hit the ground running and forgot simple strategies.
I did not prioritize my tasks for the day to ensure that the most important things I had scheduled for each day were completed.
I did not set my schedule in allotted time slots to make sure I could allow myself time every day to achieve those set goals.
I had not changed my habits enough in order to ensure that I was in the correct mindset to achieve the goals.
I am in no way saying that Gary Vaynerchuk’s ideas are wrong. Vee is a fucking genius. But, I will say that you must be able to fully commit yourself to your social media presence. I was not in a spot financially or professionally to successfully pull this off. I still hold a presence on social media, but nothing like Gary Vee teaches.
I made many mistakes. On top of my reptile business, I set my sights on becoming a certified life coach in order to help people chase their dreams as I was doing. I wanted to be the go-to person for those who wished a better life and chose the path of entrepreneurship. From there, “Abundant Lyfe N Mind” was born. This was my Facebook page and YouTube channel I had created to share my life coach message aside from my original business I had already been establishing. Only one problem! I had not finished establishing my own business and ensuring my personal success before I began assisting others with their own.
Running in circles, sleep deprived, broker than hell, and living in this trailer park, I started slipping into old habits. I found myself turning on the television more and binge watching shows on Netflix and Hulu, I stopped meditating, I stopped reading and learning, and I stopped sharing my journey. I still put in the work caring for my animals because besides my family, they are the most important thing to me. I completely lost sight of my original goal.
Through the past weeks of January 2020, I did quite a bit of self-exploration and I had to ask myself:
What is most important to me?
After starting to meditate and read again, it became clear to me. I’m not Abundant Lyfe N Mind. I am Ry the Reptile Guy and I am fucking proud of it! I want to help people. I want people to chase their dreams and live a life of abundance, free from corporate America and trading hours for dollars. But in order to do so, I had to build my own credibility and focus on my dreams. And my dream is to educate people on reptiles and other animals and teach the world that there is beauty in any creature God has put on this Earth. I want to be a voice for creatures that do not have their own. And I want the ReptiRanch. The ReptiRanch is my legacy! It has always been my destiny.
Could I eventually become a Life Coach and help others find their passion? Possibly; But, I must learn to pace myself and create success for myself and learn more of what to do myself. I still will use this blog and podcast to share my journey, inspire others, and teach others along the way. This article I am writing right now is my new first step in doing so. If you are reading this, do not do what I have done for the past three months. Instead, do the following:
Meditate! Meditation is a key to success. Create a clear, peaceful mindset. Start off by finding a quiet space, close your eyes, and sit in silence. Take deep, slow breaths and relax. Ask yourself, “what am I passionate about?” DO NOT think about what your parents do, what they want for you, or anyone else for that matter. What do YOU want?
Set your plans in stone. Purchase a journal, if you do not own one already. Sit in silence and record your thoughts and anything you feel necessary from your meditation. What is your first step? What skills do you lack to achieve those goals?
Make a daily schedule for yourself. Make a weekly schedule. Make a weekly schedule. Make a monthly schedule. Plan your days as far in advance as you can. As a father of three, I understand that plans often change and you can always edit your schedule later if needed.
If you want to start a business, do your research. Who is your competition? Who are the leaders in that industry you can learn from?
Read, read again and read some more! One of the most important things, shut off the damn TV! Go to the library and get a book or two about your industry. If the TV is on, use it for research. For example, I use YouTube on my TV to watch videos about reptile care, learning about new species, getting inspiration for my dreams.
Listen to podcasts. I have absolutely fallen in love with podcasts. My favorites include:
The Mindset Mentor with Rob Dial
The Brendon Show with Brendon Burchard
Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu
The Gary Vee Experience with Gary Vaynerchuk (or Daily/Weekly Vee)
Any of these should easily inspire you to take the next steps in following your dreams. Each of these people are very knowledgeable and have dedicated their lives to helping others just like you and I. Eventually, I would like to find myself at the same table as them, but for now, I build. We build.
In Conclusion
So I hope this blog article finds you well and I hope part or all of this message sends a message of hope and learning. I now understand what I need to do. And that starts with drastically slowing down! I hope anyone reading this has an amazing day and an even better week!
If you liked this message, please give this article a like and follow the blog! Buckle up folks, gRynd Tyme is back and it’s not going away again! I appreciate your continued support!
Remember to follow gRYnd Tyme with Ry the Reptile Guy on YouTube and follow my podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and many others!
In today’s economy, the search for extra cash is a never-ending one for most people. Each day, the struggle to make an acceptable living gets harder and harder. Some will work in upwards of 80+ hours per week in order to have extra cash to do the things they love. With this being said, many people find their salvation in a network marketing company. You can’t enter any social media feed without at least a few of your friends presenting a product they sell through this model. But is network marketing actually a financially rewarding side gig or has it become an automatic downward slope? To understand this, you must first understand what network marketing entails and how people actually can make money from this source. In this entry, we are going to dive a little deeper into this topic.
What is Network Marketing?
Network Marketing goes by many names. Network Marketing, Multi-level Marketing, Pyramid Selling, Pyramid “Scheme”. But all of these names grasp the same concept. Network marketing is a business model that relies on a network of distributors to grow a business. It typically involves using three basic types of systematic strategies to make money: lead Generation, recruiting, and building and management. Basically, there is a person at the top of the chain, who usually started the company. From the top, he/she will recruit Independent Consultants to sell the product. Being an Independent Consultant also has the privileges of recruiting for the company. So, the next level will recruit a new level, and so forth.
How Do YOU Make Money with Network Marketing?
With network marketing, the Consultant will make a percentage of their sales they make. This is usually referred to as their Personal Business Volume (PBV). With Zurvita, I make 20% of retail prices of the products I sell. There are products ranging from $20 all the way to a few hundred dollars. This is my initial income. From there, there are bonuses based on certain numbers of volume. Bonuses range anywhere from $100-$40,000. However, this income is solely based on monthly orders. So, if people cancel their order, that income is lost. So what do you do now?
As I stated above, network marketing also allows for recruitment of other consultants to work under you promoting and selling the products. This is what is referred to as your “downline.” When you recruit people under you, you also get paid a percentage of their sales as well. Usually, you would make 20% of your total PBV, and make 5-10% of your downline’s sales. This is called Group Volume (GV). Recruiting also comes with bonuses, as well as Team Business Volume (TBV) bonuses. So as you can see, the further you build, the more income can be made.
Many people frown upon this and will tell you “it’s a scam”, or “You can’t actually make money with this company.” This is due in part to a few specific factors.
That particular person tried to sell with the company and failed.
That particular person tried the products and had little to no result.
That particular person tried to sell a product through network marketing that was, in fact, a scam.
As human beings, once we have had a negative experience with something, it usually goes on the “Bad list” forever. We understand that this particular person did have a bad experience. But does this mean that we will as well?
Why Do People Have Bad Experiences?
I follow a list of people on a daily basis in order to get motivation and inspiration for my business. Gary Vaynerchuk has become one of my most trusted advisors on the topic. When asked what he thought about Network Marketing he responded with:
“I don’t like them and I’ll tell you why. I believe that they recruit people to sell their products and promote laziness. People put minimal effort into marketing the product and usually drop out once they can’t make money.” (Source GaryVee YouTube) You can watch the short video by clicking below.
“Promote laziness.” Many people join these companies in hopes of earning “$200,000 a month” as they read in the compensation plan. And truthfully, there are people in Network Marketing that do make such insane numbers. I have personally met such a person. But this is not the ideal result for these types of business. Brad Murray, who is a Crown Ambassador with Zurvita, a Network Marketing company I personally partner with, actually does make insane amounts of money every month. However, this is due to the following:
He believes in the company and trusts fully in their model
He believes in the product and actually uses the products in order to build such a trust
He DOES NOT, I repeat, DOES NOT represent this company for the money
He reaches out to people OUTSIDE of social media and takes a more “Old school” approach
He genuinely cares for the people he reaches out to and knows that his product will be beneficial to them.
I had the privilege of speaking with Brad over the phone with my upline. He is one of the most humble, respectful, and passionate people I have ever met. He loves his company, he loves his product, and he works his tail off day-in and day-out. This kind of effort has paid off for him!
So, we have covered that people have bad experiences with selling products simply because they do not put in the effort to properly market the goods. We have also covered that they are in the business for the wrong reason. But what about those people who “tried” the product? The fact is that most of these people buy these products looking for that miracle pill. You know what I mean! That miracle pill that amazingly makes them lose 50 pounds within a month and they never get it back. But this is fantasy, my friends. Such a remedy does not exist.
Most of these companies that sell “weight loss” supplements, and I say “weight loss” like this because that is not the target result, promote a healthier lifestyle. The supplements are only part of it. These supplements are designed to give the recipient a boost into a life change. This includes a change in habits, exercise routine, diet, and other aspects. But sadly, most clients take the supplements for one month, change nothing, and expect their results to be permanent. If there was such a pill, would anyone really be obese anymore? Hell no! Everyone would be taking it! With little effort, the customer throws these supplements to the side and bashes the company on their Facebook feed once they’ve gained their initial poundage back.
Why Did I Choose Network Marketing?
I will be honest. I did not choose Network Marketing. My Aunt, who has always been very supportive of me and any adventure I’ve ever taken, joined with Zurvita and invited me to her in-home party, or as we in Zurvita call it, our social. I went with every intention of saying No because of my past experience with these businesses. But I fell in love with the company, the product, and the culture. I did not give in to any pushy sales tactics, because there simply weren’t any. I watched a video, sampled the product, and loved it! I loved the way they weren’t pushing me into anything. They talked about the business, explained the science of the product, shared a few testimonials, and that was it. There was no ‘Who wants to buy from me?” or “Who’s ready to join?” Nothing. He simply stood up after about an hour and said “I believe we have planted our seeds”, shook my hand, and left.
The presenters were Mike Williams and Taylor Ringkamp, a father-daughter team traveling across the US to spread the word about the company. Mike has become a great mentor to me and Taylor is an amazing person to be around. They are both so helpful and show their “no man gets left behind” attitude in their business. I fell in love with not only the company, but with the people. I will share why I decided to say yes when I was so sure I was going to say no.
Zurvita is a faith-based company who not only spreads the good word about their products, but they share the love of Jesus in their business. I am a Christian and that is amazing to me. I understand not all people are Christians, and that’s fine. This is what was an important factor to me.
Zurvita has all natural, plant-based ingredients in their products and promote the lifestyle in which I was currently transitioning to. And the products work!
Mike and Taylor are so supportive and happily help everyone with their business. Having a supportive upline is also very important because many people in these types of businesses recruit people just to make money off of them.
Zeal, the first product I tried from Zurvita that has honestly changed my life!
Is Networking Marketing a Dirty Word?
So is Network Marketing really this scam people make it out to be? Absolutely not. Because 99% of the issues people faced with these businesses were due to their own poor efforts. So, next time someone says “Don’t do that! It’s a scam!” Do me a favor, and do yourself a favor. Ask why. Ask why their feel this way. They will tell you one of the following:
You can’t make any money
The products don’t work
It’s too time-consuming!
No one wants to buy the products
Do your own research. Ask more questions. Honestly, if they become irritated, it is possibly because they just realized that the reason they failed, is because of themselves.
If you are interested in learning about the great opportunities Zurvita has to offer, you can visit my link and look around. No pressure, no sales push, simply look. I have embedded my link to my site below. Let me know in the comments what you think! I’d love to hear your experiences! As always, I appreciate your support and time to read my blog entry. I look forward to growing with you!
Ryan Glenn 