Take Charge of Your Life

Lessons learnt through trials and adversity

By Ben Solomon

Legal Disclaimer

▪ These are observations from my own life and experiences and are my own opinions

▪ Always take advice from qualified professionals (Accountant, Physician, Lawyer etc) before doing anything

▪ I will not be liable for your results, action (or lack there of), or any thing else.

▪ Always do your own due diligence

▪ Now lets get to the real stuff ;)

Personal

▪ Rest your mind – your most valuable asset along with your h_____

▪ Reduce time wasted on consumption – Radio, TV, Games, Media

▪ Use your time effectively – everyone has the same 24 hours

▪ Delegate as much as you can

▪ Use commuting time to read or listen to material that will help you grow

▪ Stop feeding the trolls – don’t allow them to pull you down to their level

Professional / Business

▪ Don’t leave your fate at the hands of your employer

▪ Spend time to learn a valuable skill, and become an expert

▪ Invest time and money to build a part-time income source

▪ Invest in your growth and learning

▪ Look at leveraging available resources and knowledge to build information businesses

Professional / Business

▪ Learn to invest in Real estate and Stocks for passive income and growth

▪ Network with like minded people to grow and help each other grow

▪ Get a mentor or coach – some one who has done what you would like to achieve, and model them (don’t copy them)

▪ Be prepared to do what ever it takes - Everything has a cost, find the cost and pay the cost to get the results

Professional / Business

▪ Get an accountability partner – some one who has the guts to tell you things that you may not necessarily want to hear

▪ Everyone has some specific knowledge in an area of interest or passion, that can be turned to a full on information business and help other people

▪ Successful people got there by investing in themselves, their education and doing more than the average person

Physical Health

▪ Your health is your most valuable asset along with your mind

▪ Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and you are responsible for taking care of it

▪ Stop making excuses and take responsibility

▪ Invest time and money to learn a bit about nutrition and health

▪ Stop looking for ‘quick fixes’ like pills and fad diets

▪ Some tips . . .

Physical Health (tips . . .)

▪ Fat loss can be achieved by reducing the amount of circulating Insulin in our blood

▪ This means reducing the amount of total carbs eaten to under 100gm a day (for some it might be even lower). Not only does this help in fat loss, but also helps in reducing Cholesterol and the chances of other lifestyle diseases

▪ After getting advice from a qualified physician, get started on an exercise program

▪ Strive for fat loss rather than weight loss (use a tape measure to measure progress, rather than a weighing scale)

Physical Health (tips . . .)

▪ Track and test everything – this includes what food you’re eating, the amount of calories, amount of carbs (this is VERY CRITICAL for fat loss), exercise

▪ Stop wasting time on low intensity and long winded cardio and make the most of your time by doing 20 minute High Intensity Interval Training (you don’t need a gym or anything for this – just a 50m length of road, footpath, play ground or staircase [I personally prefer the staircase]. Run at full intensity for 50m and walk back and repeat this for 20 mins)

▪ If you go to the gym, make the most of your time there by doing heavy weights – if you can do more than 8 reps of anything, your not working hard enough. (this is both for men and women – no ladies you’re not going to become all muscly like men, unless you take testosterone and steroids)

Physical Health (tips . . .)

▪ Get an accountability partner – some one who has the guts to tell you things that you may not necessarily want to hear

▪ Fat loss is hard work, but worth every bit of it

▪ Fat loss is not instant – it took you years to put it on, and its going to take a while to get it off, this is the truth that most people don’t want to hear

Physical Health (tips . . .)

▪ Successful fat loss happens due to a holistic lifestyle change, it’s a life long journey – please throw the ‘diet’ mentality away

▪ Follow the 90/10 rule – be strict 90% of the time and allow yourself to have a ‘treat’ the other 10%, but make sure that the ‘treat’ doesn’t become the 90%

▪ Who am I to talk about this? Well I’ve lost more than 30 Kgs (66 lbs) and have kept it off for more than 5 years

Spiritual

▪ Take time from your busy day to read the Bible & allow God’s word to lead you through the day

▪ Spend a few minutes in prayer, talking to God, each day. Bring your worries and burdens before Him, because He cares

▪ This has been my source of strength and courage in the face of adverse situations in life so far

▪ Even non-Christian, I believe, will gain a lot out of this

Relationships

▪ After my Relationship with God, my relationship with my family is the most important, and I need to constantly work at making time for open and honest communication

▪ This is something that is not ‘natural’. We have to work hard at it – Like Zig Ziglar says ‘Every good habit needs to be grabbed and held on to for dear life’

▪ Make time for face to face time – phone, email and social media are not the ‘real’ thing

▪ When in a group, put your phone away or turn it off (your FB status, email and everything else can wait) – this again doesn’t come naturally to me and I will continue working hard at it

General Stuff

▪ Time is the MOST valuable thing. Time once lost can NEVER be gained back again

▪ We all have a limited time left – death is an inevitable reality of life

▪ Make the most of every moment – you are responsible towards yourself and God, for the use or misuse of your time

▪ Invest in yourself – if you don’t do it, who else will?

▪ Don’t spend more money than you have (loans, credit card debts etc.)

General Stuff

▪ Start getting some financial education – regardless of what you do, you have to learn to handle money and do it well

▪ Start preparing your own financial statements to find where you’ve got money and budget leaks. Track all your incomes and expenses

▪ Set tangible (in sight, but just out of reach) and specific goals – find the obstacles that are keeping you from your goals, find the price and pay the price

▪ Don’t worry about criticism, people are always going to criticize. If you let their criticism get to you, you will allow them to steal your dreams.

General Stuff

▪ Don’t be afraid to put yourself out of your comfort zone. If you don’t do it by your own choice, some one or some circumstance is going to do it for you anyway, when that happens it hurts much more

▪ Do an 80/20 analysis of life and various activities, and start eliminating the 20% that’s pulling you down

▪ Keep away from negative people, or they’ll pull you down to their level

▪ Develop daily rituals to help become more effective and efficient

▪ Don’t fear failure, it’s much worse to live with the knowledge that you didn’t try. Live a life with no regrets

Thank you

▪ Thank you for taking time to listen to this video.

▪ I really hope this has helped you in some way, to think and start making positive changes to your life

▪ If you’d like to follow my journey in the world of Information Marketing, check out my blog @ http://ben-solomon.com

▪ Check out the video version of this on my YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/BenSolomonIM/