I coach people to build winning habits @ PoweredByHabits.com. Pushups doer at drivetoinspire.com. In pursuit for a meaningful life at ankumanshrestha.com.

Jan 2, 2016

These 5 Rules Will Help You To Create An Extraordinary 2016

“Either you run your day or your day runs you.” ~ Jim Rohn

“My plan is to buy houses for cheap, fix it up real good, and then flip it. I have been doing this for 15 years now.” He said to me with pride and confidence.

That was the first time I had heard about the term fix-uppers.

The plan was to buy the beaten down houses for real cheap, fix them, and then sell it for a neat profit. The dreams were big (in six figures).

And the math was simple. The houses we would buy were to be in the range of 5 to 10 grands. We would get the funds for repairs from private real-estate investors.

Fix the house in a month. Up-sell it. Then move to the next house.

Back then, it all sounded super lucrative. Just like Uncle Scrooge, I saw the $$$ signs in my eyes.

All I had to do was invest and he’d do all the running around. We fix one house and share the profit between us after selling it. Repeat the same thing for 5 times in a year. And BAM!!! 100 grands would be in my pocket.

My rational brain told me I could make some serious money from this. We shook hands.

But only later I realized that my emotional brain was in charge of the driver’s seat all those time.

There were many red flags in those 7 months we did business (sort of) together. There were business credit cards on my name, 2 bank accounts, and a mortgage application. I knew nothing about them. Those guys know their thing real good.

His girl-friend was a cocaine addict. One night… Right around 9 pm, we drove 2 hours in the middle of no-where country side Ohio to pick her up. On our drive back, I could sense a strong smell of herbs in the car that would have gotten us to the circus if pulled over.

By now, I already had 20 thousand dollars worth of debt on my head. And we still had zero house to our names. The closing costs kept stretching by a couple of 1000 bucks every time we tried to close the deal on that one house on Hawthorne Av. The house on Mitchell, the attorney ended up being a fraud and ran away with 10 freaking grands.

But I still went with my emotions and gave him the fifth benefit of doubt.

That shit back-fired real good.

He got to run away with my car leaving behind a debt of over 25 grands on my head.

But as the wise man who started jogging and eating spinach at 65 once said -

Better late than never!!!

7 months, 14 days and 8 hours later, I learned that my ex-roomie was a con-man. I did cringe once when I saw his mugshot online. He had been on the run for a while now.

I learned a funny and stupid fact about the police department. Let’s say you are wanted in the state of Georgia. And you somehow are able to be on the run and end up in Ohio. Now if anyone reports you to the state of Georgia police about your whereabouts, this is what the cops would say.

“This is outside our 160 mile Fulton County radius. We won’t be able to come after him.”

I said — “Damn!”

Murphy’s law had already played its charm on me. Whatever mess had to happen had already been created.

My life was a mess.

But here’s the best part — I was still alive and breathing. I learned to be more grateful about this fact.

I’ve got some crazy, worth-writing-a-book sort of experiences living with a psychopath for 7 months.

The title of the book -

I Still Know What You Did Last April: 7 Life-Changing Lessons Learned Living With A Wanted Psychopath for 7 months.

I totally stole that name from the movie. Don’t worry. We’ll brainstorm together on an attention grabbing name such that the readers’s eyeballs come out of their sockets.

But I’ll keep that for next time.

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Do you want to create an epic 2016?

What if there were rules you could follow this year that would help you to create an extraordinary 2016?

I didn’t find any online. To be honest, I got lazy and didn’t bother to Google it.

Thus, so I’m writing one.

5 Rules That Will Help You To Create An Extraordinary 2016

Rule #1 — It’s either ‘Hell Yeah’ or ‘No’.

This year if someone proposes a business idea to you, hold on to your balls before jumping all excited about it.

It doesn’t matter if it has awesome potential to change the world. There’s lot of competition in changing the world today anyways. Just watch the news in the morning and you’ll know your competitors.

I stopped watching news 2 years ago.

This 2016. Be smart. Avoid competition.

Even better, act on Peter Thiel’s advice — If you’re working on your startup, create a monopoly.

There’s nothing wrong with a monopoly. Tesla, Facebook, Luxottica… I just named a few for you.

When you dedicate your time in creating a monopoly, it would prevent you hoping from one idea to another.

This 2016, hold on and as Mr. Buddha advises — Just Breathe…

Like Victor Frankl said in Man’s Search For Meaning — spend some time in the gap that follows the stimulus. And then create the best possible response you can.

The same applies to your big ideas too. Don’t keep jumping around from idea to idea and begin working on all of it. Too often, you wouldn’t finish none.

In 2015, there was a time when I was working to make 4 potential business ideas into a reality.

Today is the first day of January 2016 as I write this. My first idea ended up as a poor-little-me as I was a victim of identity theft and real-estate fraud.

The second one OnCampusGigs.com. It sounded cool. We launched the website. We created the e-book that we were going to monetize. And then we did nothing. I removed the hosting to use it for another project. It will rest in peace (for now may be).

The third idea.. Well this time the founder asked me to step down as I had breached the Non Disclosure Agreements. Screw NDA’s…

The fourth idea. It gave me sleepless nights when I first had that light bulb moment.

“Shit! I gotta make this happen.”

When you take actions on an idea, do this assessment, will ya?

Does the work take you in the psychological state of flow?

It’s a state when you want to keep doing what you’re doing without food, water, sleep. If this is how you feel like while working, keep doing what you’re doing.

But if it gets a bit tricky to be mindful of your Flow state, just listen to Derek Sivers’s advice -

Whenever you hear a new idea and you have to make a decision whether to take actions towards it or not, do this. Listen to your inner voice. It should shout a ‘Hell Yeah!!!’ or just say ‘No’ to it.

Rule #2 — Go Make a Ruckus.

Google defines ‘ruckus’ as a disturbance or commotion.

But Seth Godin means it in a constructive way.

When he says ‘Go Make a Ruckus’, he means this.

Challenge the status quo. Don’t settle for mediocrity. Be the Purple Cow. Create things (companies) that are remarkable (worth making a remark about). Be a Linchpin. Be indispensable. Never settle down. Go make something happen. Ship everyday. Get out of The Dip. Don’t stay still. Go Make a Ruckus.

Or as Antonio likes to say — Make shit happen!

In middle school, your teacher warned you not to make a ruckus.

Good thing, you’re not in school anymore. Now go make a ruckus.

Antonio was a 9th grade brat I got to meet during one of my fellowship visits to Western Hills High School.

Here watch Seth speak.

Rule #3 — If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t help you.

The day you stop learning & growing, that’s the day you begin to die. And the easiest way to make sure you keep growing every day is this. Do things that challenge you. Things that stretch your thoughts… your imaginations.

Do not stop. Never get satisfied (in a passive way) with whatever you’re doing.

Evolve. Learn. Adapt.

Shunryu Suzuki, a badass zen monk said in a slow and soft voice -

If you treat everything like you’re a beginner, anything is possible. The minute you feel like you’re an expert, possibilities dwindle.

Stop resting on your laurels. Try to constantly break what you know already and see if it holds.

Yes, it’s going to be a harder road. But look around you.

Is this the life you want for the rest of your life?

Don’t get me wrong here. You could still continue to do things that do not challenge you. Your well-paying job that you hate for instance.

But at least pick a task that challenges you. Physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, anyone will help you to create an extraordinary 2016.

Another wise man, I don’t remember who, said -

The way you do something is the way you do everything.

Do you want to create an extraordinary 2016?

I challenge you to challenge yourself.

Rule #4 — Focus on forming habits. Do not rely on motivation or willpower.

There are two books you must read this year.

Better than before by Gretchen Rubin and The Power of Habits by Charles Duhigg.

Have you tried losing weight before and failed at it horribly? (If that’s one of your new year’s resolution for 2016, I urge you to read the 2 books).

Have you wanted to do 10 min meditation every day but didn’t follow through? This happened to me in the past.

What about this one… your goal to ‘Read more often’? How many books did you finish in 2015?

I’m pretty sure you wanted to eat healthier foods more often this past year. Did you succeed in getting them greens and veggies in your diet? or did you have McDonald’s this past week?

Look.. I’m not trying to make you feel bad. It happens to all of us.

Too often we try to use willpower and motivation to accomplish a goal.

But then what happens, you already know about it.

I won’t write much about this rule. I will just quote Gretchen here -

Habits make change possible by freeing us from decision making and from using self-control.

When we change our habits, we change our lives. We can use decision making to choose the habits we want to form, we can use willpower to get the habit started; then — and this is the best part — we cn allow the extraordinary power of habit to take over. We take our hands off the wheel of decision, our foot off the gas of willpower, and rely on the cruise control of habits.

I cannot recommend this book to you any more. It costs 18 bucks. That’s like 3 Starbucks coffee for you… is it? So go give your money to Gretchen. Get this book now. Thanks to my friend Joey. I got this as a Christmas gift. Happy me!

BTW Gretchen, if you are reading this… Thanks for shipping such a kickass and insightful book. Say Hello to James on my behalf! XOXO

Rule #5 — Screw FEAR!

I like what Erik Wahl says about FEAR.

So true… isn’t it?

Okay… here’s another question to you.

What is beyond fear?

What is it that is stopping you from something you’ve always wanted to do and still want to?

The answer my friend — Nothing. There is nothing beyond fear.

So what’s that one fear that is stopping you from shipping your project? Take a moment to analyze. I bet the answer will be nothing.

This doesn’t mean you should be fearless. If nothing scares you, there’s no vulnerability. Because when you make yourself vulnerable, you awaken the giant within.

But you can do this. You can diminish your fear a bit, may be not fully overcome it. You don’t have to defeat your fear anyways.

When fear keeps lurching on your mind, you just show it the middle finger and take actions.

To create an extraordinary 2016, remember this — Fear and Actions aren’t mutually exclusive.

You can be afraid of something and still do it. Just like I was first afraid to share the story about my ex-psychopathic roommate, but I shared it with you. And now I feel like Leonidas. Spartaaaaaa!!!!!

The day you realize that fear is just another false evidence appearing real, you will begin to create and share more of who you are with the world.

There’s always going to be some asshole who’ll criticize the work you create. And your girl friend will tell you to get over it or just ignore them, but still, it sucks. I can understand you here.

The web is one big complainer-orgy. The people who complain about what you create (a) weren’t ever going to buy anything off you or support you any ways, and (b) they probably don’t create anything themselves, other than criticism. So their opinion doesn’t matter.

Like Brene Brown says -

If you’re not in the arena getting your butt kicked too, I’m not interested in your feedback.

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TL;DR

Make your own rules to follow this year that will help you create an extraordinary 2016. The following 5 are the rules I will live by -

Rule #1 — It’s either ‘Hell Yeah!!!’ or ‘No’. (Thank you Derek)
Rule #2 — Go Make a Ruckus. (Thank you Seth)
Rule #3 — If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t help you. (Thank you Paul)
Rule #4 — Focus on forming habits. Do not rely on motivation or willpower. (Thank you Gretchen and Charles)
Rule #5 — Screw Fear. (Thank you Erik)

Disclaimer — I wrote the above piece as a reminder for myself.

These are the 5 rules I will live by this year. This is how I will create an extraordinary 2016.

Thanks for reading till the end. You’re awesome!

You can also download this post as a PDF without giving me your email address. To download, just click here.

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