Create Unstoppable Momentum
Toward Your Dream Career …
in Less Than an Hour a Day
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones that you did do.”
– Mark Twain
Imagine, just for a moment, that just a few months from now, you’re relaxing under a palm tree on a beach in some faraway land.
You feel the warm ocean breeze caress your skin … dig your toes into the grainy white sand … watch pelicans, fish hawks and flamingos fly by …
Are you on vacation? Nope.
This is your “office.”
Thanks to your trusty laptop and the prevalence of fast internet connections all over the world, you can live and work from just about anywhere you want … yet still make more money than you did in any other job you’ve held before.
Sound like a pipe dream? It’s not.
Even in these uncertain times, starting a new “dream career” remains well within your reach. The challenge is, you can’t just order up a dream career like you can a burger and fries at your corner greasy spoon.
It also requires careful planning and consistent follow-through.
The good news?
Starting a New Dream Career Is
Much Easier Than You Might Think
In fact, if you’ve got an air-tight, nuclear-proof battle plan, and you follow through with it with courage and persistence, you can be well on your way to enjoying the career and life of your dreams in just a few short months.
Today, I’m going to show you exactly how to do that … starting with about an hour a day!
Here’s how to get started:
1. Get your hands on the highest-quality “beginners” learning resource available.
When you first get started learning a highly valued, worthwhile skill – a skill that can lead to a dream career – it goes without saying that you want to learn from the very best. If you can get a highly experienced individual to mentor you personally, you’re golden.
Unfortunately, not all of us can start working with a mentor right away. The next best thing? To get your hands on the highest-quality learning materials you can find (books, home-study courses, etc.).
At first, I recommend you start with just one learning resource. Why? Because you don’t want to get overwhelmed with too much information.
“Bite as much as you can chew” as they say …
What kind of learning resource should you start out with?
Make sure it satisfies the following criteria:
- It’s ideal for beginners. If you’re just starting out, you don’t want to begin with a learning resource that assumes advanced knowledge. Get a resource that has no prerequisites.
- It’s highly recommended. Look up the learning resource online to see what other industry experts and customers say about it. Make sure it’s getting unbiased rave reviews.
- It provides a solid educational foundation. Check out the resource’s table of contents, its promotional copy, and whatever else you can to get a feel for how comprehensive the content is. Make sure it’s thorough enough to get a grasp of the basics … yet paves the way for you to learn more advanced knowledge later on.
- It’s easy to read, understand and implement. Read through some pages and make sure comprehension is within your grasp. After all, you don’t want to start out with something you still won’t be able to understand – even after several readings.
You may not be able to determine all of this with every single learning resource you come across. Just do your best to get a feel for what you’ll be reading – before you buy.
For example, let’s say you’ve always dreamed of becoming a freelance travel writer, and you need a learning resource to get you started. You could go to your local bookstore or Amazon.com and check out some books on travel writing. Read through the pages and see if it grabs you.
Or, you can go online and research what other travel books, courses, or other resources are out there.
Or, if you’re really committed to making your travel writing dreams come true as quickly as possible, you can take the plunge and get your hands on The Ultimate Travel Writer’s Program from AWAI’s Travel Division.
The choice is yours. But whatever you choose, make sure you feel it meets all of the above criteria. And make sure you choose a resource that you’ll look forward to reading. A lot.
Next …
2. Determine at what time of day you can spare an hour.
Are you free from 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. … before everyone else wakes up? Or how about during your lunch breaks … from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.? Or maybe it’s after everyone goes to bed … say, from 11:00 p.m. to midnight?
Whatever time you choose, make sure you commit to your chosen timeframe 100%. Promise yourself that at whatever time you decide – you will absolutely, positively, “without a shadow of a doubt” devote yourself to mastering your craft for that designated time slot.
I cannot overstress this one point. But please … don’t just take my word for it!
Here’s what Dorothea Brande, author of the highly acclaimed writer’s instruction manual Becoming a Writer has to say about “keeping your word” when it comes to mastering a skill (in this example, fiction writing):
“Now this is very important, and can hardly be emphasized too strongly: you have decided to write at four o’clock, and at four o’clock write you must! No excuses can be given. If at four o’clock you find yourself deep in conversation, you must excuse yourself and keep your engagement. Your agreement is a debt of honor, and must be scrupulously discharged; you have given yourself your word and there is no retracting it.”
Tough words, to say the least, but I believe she’s spot on. Make a commitment to stick to your schedule and get started the very second you promised yourself you’d start … NO MATTER WHAT!
Then …
3. Read (and take notes) like your life depends on it!
“Being a voracious reader is one of the few ways you can get a leg up on the competition.”
– Steve Sjuggerud, Founder and Editor of True Wealth one of the largest financial newsletters in the world
Once you’ve got your chosen resource to learn from, and you know when you’ve got an hour, it’s time to dive in and start soaking up the material. BUT BEFORE YOU DO THAT … I suggest taking a trip to your local office supply store to pick up a bunch of pens and multi-colored highlighters.
THEN … when the clock strikes 5:00 a.m. … 12:30 p.m. … 11:00 p.m. … or whatever time you’ve chosen to learn and master your craft, start reading.
Whenever you come across something that grabs you, go ahead and highlight it to your heart’s content. Don’t be afraid. Get down and dirty while you’re at it. Jot down notes … ideas … and concepts in the margins. Dog-ear those pages. Turn your book or course into a ragged, gnarly glow-in-the-dark beast. You want to learn it so well that you can practically recite what’s on each page by heart.
One legendary copywriter who used a similar approach to learning was Eugene Schwartz. He once took a book of 700 or so pages in length and read it four times … taking notes all along the way. Then he’d have his secretary transcribe those notes into about 50 pages of facts, figures, ideas, concepts, and whatever else grabbed his eye that he’d use when he wrote his copy.
To say his strategy worked is the understatement of the century.
In his lifetime, Eugene Schwartz sold over $2 BILLION through his ad copy … and that was when the dollar was at 1960s and 1970s levels.
Inspiring, to say the least.
One caveat, though …
Although you do want to learn as much as possible when you’re getting started, you can overdo it. There is a point where you have to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and move on. Unfortunately, many aspiring freelancers get caught in the “analysis paralysis” trap and just read, read, and read some more … without EVER taking action.
That simply won’t work. As you’ll soon find out, it doesn’t matter how much you know. It’s what you do with what you know that brings home the bacon.
Back to your battle plan …
Then, once you’ve got a good, solid handle on the fundamentals, it’s time to …
4. Convert what you learn into a step-by-step plan.
There’s a good chance your learning resource will have a “step-by-step” plan already included that you can follow. If not, you’ll have to create one yourself from scratch.
If that’s the case, don’t worry about it. This shouldn’t be too much of a challenge if you’ve truly mastered the material – and taken copious notes.
For example, let’s say you’re reading a book on travel writing. In one of the chapters, it says, “It’s important to have at least a few writing samples you can show editors.”
You can write down “Complete my first writing sample” on your action plan. Go through the book chapter-by-chapter, looking at both the content and your notes, and do the same with any other “actionable” content that you come across.
Then, put all the steps you’ve created in order.
And finally, you’re ready to …
5. TAKE ACTION!
Religious leader Abu Bakr once said “ … knowledge without action is futile.”
Noel Bushnell, founder of Atari, said, “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something.”
And Robert Ringer, author of the book Action! Nothing Happens Until Something Moves, included a parable in his book that really brings home the importance of action:
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you had better start running.”
You can know more about your chosen skill than anyone else in your field, but if you fail to take action, all of your learning efforts will go for naught.
However you go about it, it’s critical that you get off your butt and do something with what you’ve learned!
So get going and TAKE ACTION!
Can you do all this … starting with just 60 minutes a day? Absolutely! Not only that, but you’ll be amazed at how much progress you’ll make in just a few short months.
Advice From a $20-Million-Per-Year
Marketing Mastermind
That’s right. Do this for 60 minutes – day-in and day-out for just 90 days – and I guarantee you’ll see tremendous progress.
Why 90 days? I actually got the idea from a brilliant entrepreneur named Eben Pagan, one of the most successful internet marketers on the scene today. Eben’s online ventures went from $0 to $20 million per year in only six years.
Not bad for a guy in his early 30s, ay?
In many of his instructional DVDs, Eben recommends spending an hour a day – each and every day – for 90 days in order to “hardwire” a new skill into your subconscious.
Hey … if the guy pulls in $20 million a year, I’ll take his advice in a heartbeat!
Once you’ve done this – consistently – for 90 days straight, you’ll have heaps of momentum going for you. You’ll have a firm grasp of what you’re learning. You’ll have plenty of ideas floating around in your head. And you’ll likely want to keep charging forward … more than ever before.
Make sure you keep going past 90 days! Here’s some solid advice from the book Time Power by Brian Tracy, one of the world’s premier business consultants and personal success experts:
“Read at least one hour per day in your chosen field. One hour a day will translate into approximately one book a week. One book a week will translate into approximately fifty books over the next twelve months. If you read an hour a day, one book per week, you will be an expert in your field within three years. You will be a national authority in five years, and you will be an international authority in seven years. All leaders are readers.”
Well said, Brian.
By the way, if you want to bump up to two hours a day or more – or even more – go for it! Just make sure you don’t take on too much at once. Again, you want to make sure you “bite off only as much as you can chew.” You DON’T want to just give it all up because of stress, frustration, or simply being overworked.
Pay attention to how enthusiastic you are about developing your new skill. Keep yourself fresh. Track how much time you spend … so you can gauge if you’re doing too little … or too much. And make sure you’re having fun!
Do all this, and you’ll be primed to make a successful career change … and start enjoying a new dream career and a dream life from wherever in the world you choose to be.
Additional Recommended Resources
BOOKS:
EBOOKS:
COURSES:
- Copywriting: AWAI’s Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting
- Graphic Design: Graphic Design Success
- Information Publishing: Self Publishing: Your Complete Business Plan for Creating a Life Without Borders
- Photography: Turn Your Pictures Into Cash
- Travel Writing: The Ultimate Travel Writers Program
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