Day 6 – Planning Changed My Life

Hello, everyone!

Today I want to talk about something very important to me.

I want to talk about a problem with which I have dealt literally my whole life and which has caused me a lot of problems over the course of my life.

Inconsistency.

I’m one of those people who like doing everything. I am curious, I love to learn, I always want to know more than I already know.

But, having so many interests has proven to be a burdain from time to time. Whenever I start doing something I like, I seem to subconsciously push it out of my interest after a very brief period of time. This has prevented me from actually devoting myself to anything I even remotely liked or was interested in.

For year have I skipped from one interest to another, one dream job to another, one hobby to another, one sport to another. I’m only 19 years old and so far I have trained these sports in this specific order:

• swimming
• basketball
• fencing
• handball
• baseball
• rowing
• judo

And what is even more insane, I was pretty good at all of these (ok, maybe not basketball), but even though I liked it, even though I was doing good, I always stopped doing it. Never have I successfully commited myself to a sport enough to say that I’m really really good at it.

But it goes a lot further than just sports. As to this day, I wanted to be a(n):

• lawyer
• translator
• programmer
• web developer
• photographer
• entrepreneur
• writer

Yup, I’m a total all-around kid of guy!

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel bad about this a single bit. It is a problem I’m dealing with my whole life, but I have not regretted being me even for a second. I love myself just the way I am. I love that I’m curious, I love that I love to learn, I love that I want to do anyhing and everything. Kids these days seem to not have any interests – well I have plenty for them all! And guess what? I’m proud of that.

But still, in order to make a path of my own, I had to find a way to cope with this. The solution was so simple that I laughed when I tried it for the first time.

Planning. Planning Everything.

You wouldn’t believe how a single list can change the course of your day.

Before I started planning stuff, I used to spend a lot of time multitasking. And that led to nowhere. I would, say, stard multiple courses all at once, and I never finished any of them because I would constantly lose focus while thinking about some other course. Nowadays, I grab a pen and paper, and I carefully plan how will I complete the course.

Every evening before I go to bed, I write down what I want to accomplish the next day. And guess what? I accomplish it. This goes not only for days. I have a daily plan, a weekly plan, a monthly plan, an anual plan… Determining your goals and crushing them – this is the philosophy I go by.

Not to mention the improvement this has made on my studies! Instead of cramming in lesson by lesson as I did so far, now I make a study plan and I go by it, step by step. I even time my study periods in order to keep track of how much time I spend studying.

This blog is actually my way of battling with inconsistency. By devoting myself to writing each and every day, I challenge my inconsistent unconcious. And I don’t intend to quit! I have gone so far and I’m not turning back, I’m making my own path towards success and I do not intend to mess this up!

Thank you so much for supporting me, guys!

If you have similar stories, I would love to hear them. Please leave any interesting story in the comments below!

Untill tomorrow!

Love,

V

Day 5 – How I Make Easy Pocket Money Online

Hello, everyone!

Recently, I have seen a lot of questions on one of my favourite websites, Quora, regarding the topic of making quick and easy money online.

Therefore, I have decided to share with you guys how I make some easy pocket money online.

There are a lot of ways to make money online:

• By completing the so-called “Micro Jobs” on websites such as Amazon MTurk etc.
• By providing various services in your area of expertize on websites such as Fiverr
• By doing many available freelancing jobs on websites such as Freelancer, Elance, Upwork, Odesk etc.
• By blogging ( 🙂 ) 

Of course, these are just some of many ways to earn money online. Now, some of these do require certain experience, good ratings and recommendations. But what if I told you that there is a way to start earning money online immediately, without any investment. Only thing that you are required to invest is a decent usage of English language.

Seems impossible, right? Well, it isn’t. It is a great way to immediately earn good amount of pocket money. If you are good at it, you may even make a profession out of it.

I present to you…

FREELANCE ONLINE CONTENT WRITING.

There are a lot of websites online which provide jobs of all topics for freelance writers all across the world. Not all of them are beginner-friendly, but there are some which allow you almost immediate earnings, with very little effort.

The one I would recommend to a complete beginner is iWriter.

iWriter is, in my humble opinion, the most beginner friendly freelance content writing website there is. All you need to do is to complete a fast registration, watch a short video tutorial (optional but highly recommended) and you’re good to take one of many different jobs there are.

The great thing about this website is that there is no writer selection process. Who grabs the job first gets it. It is, however, up to the writer’s skills whether the article shall be accepted or rejected.

In the list below are some advices on how to choose your first writing job at iWriter.com:

• In the menu above the job list, check the approval rate to be above 75%, this way you are more likely to have your article approved by the requester
• Check the article instructions, if the instructions are too lengthy, or the requester mentiones the phrase similar to “DON’T DO THIS OR THAT OR THE ARTICLE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY REJECTED”, then you should stay away from taking the job
• If the article instructions are too short, you should stay away from the job as well
• Check the ratings from the previous writers who have worked for the requester, if they are not as good as they should be (at least 4.5 stars for requesters), you should stay away from taking the job
• If the instructions are not in good English, or they are written with poor usage of grammar, you may expect the review to be in the same manner

Please do take this advice seriously as I’m speaking from my own experience. I have dealt with a lot of bad requesters when I was starting and I don’t want any other beginner to experience it. It damages your rating a lot, and it takes a lot of time to repair the rating afterwards.

In the images below are some examples of bad requesters.

The payments at start are not that great. The trick is to advance to the ‘Premium’ and ‘Elite’ writing classes. With every advancement you will earn more money per article, and you’ll start getting better yobs. In order to advance to the Premium class, you need to have at least 25 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1 stars or more. For the Elite class the bar is a bit higher, you need at least 30 written reviews, with an average rating of 4.6 stars or above. There is also the Elite Plus class, where you earn some serious money, but it requires 40 reviews and a 4.85+ rating.

There are, of course, some sites where you can earn more money, but they require a lot of writing experience. iWriter is a great place to start writing, you’ll gain some valuable experience and still earn some decent pocket money.

After you’ve gained some experience at iWriter, you are all set up to take on some serious writing gigs. You can even consider making it your regular source of income.

Here is my current iWriter balance, as an evidence that it is possible to make money with it. As you can see, I’m a Premium writer now. This money was earned by writing 5-6 Premium class articles.

Now you’re all set up to start earning decent money online!

Please do let me know in the comments what your experiences are. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments as well.

Until tomorrow guys!

Love,

V

Day 4 – Everything Is Better at 6 AM!

Hello, everyone!

It is the third day of the cold shower challenge now, and I must tell you that I feel absolutely great! After only three days I feel hooked. It is as if the cold shower is my only daily dose of dopamine and serotonin. My toughts are clearer, my body feels lighter and warmer, I have energy to do anything, at any time. I have realized that the ice cold water only feels cold for the first 20 seconds or so, after that you get used to it and it just doesn’t feel as cold as it is. This is most certainly an unique experience, and I’ll make sure to complete this challenge and tell you my thoughts in 27 days now!

If you haven’t joined my challenge yet, I highly recommend you to do so, more information here.

Moving on to the main topic of today’s post.

Can you tell me what do people like Tim Cook, Howard Shultz and Richard Branson all have in common, besides the fact that they are some of the most successfull businessmen in the world today?

They are all early risers.

So I did some research and found that the list doesn’t end with these three great minds. Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway and many other were also early birds.

Getting up early has many benefits:

• You are less likely to skip a workout when you get up early
• People who get up early usually eat healthier than those who like to wake up late
• Getting up early incleases your dopamine and serotonin levels, meaning you’re less likely to suffer from depression if you’re an early riser
• Early birds are usually cheerfull and happy people
• If you get up early, chances are you’ll be more productive that day etc.

–More productive, you say?

Of course, these are only some of the benefits of waking up early, there are many more benefits to it. But the thing that caught my eye is of course the productivness thing.

So I was thinking, if some of the most succesfull people EVER are doing it, why isn’t everybody else doing it as well? I mean, we all want to be succesfull, we all want money, we all want fame, nice houses, luxurious cars, fancy clothes and all, but the thing is that WE DON’T WANT TO WORK FOR IT.

This is what differs the 99% from the 1%, we all want to get in the 1%, but nobody is willing to push him/herself to the limit. I mean, these people are not superhumans, they are just regular homo sapiens just like you and me.

So I said to myself – it is time to start doing what the 1% does.

And thus I have made a plan. As an appendix to my 30 day cold shower challenge, I add 30 day waking up at 6AM, making it a 30 DAY WAKE UP AT 6AM AND TAKE A COLD SHOWER CHALLENGE. That’s right, for the next 30 days, I’m going to wake up at 6AM and immediately take a 5-minute ice cold shower.

Sounds fun now, doesn’t it?

I can’t wait for the next month to share with you guys my experience.

Is anybody up for the challenge?

Let me know what are your experiences!

Best regards guys.

Love,

V

 

Day 3 – Follow Your Passion!

Hello, everyone!

Today I want to talk about something very important to me – following your passion.

So I have this friend. For few years now he is filming himself playing video games and he is posting those videos on YouTube. He is really good at playing video games, and his videos are truly great and funny and all, but his they just can’t seem to get as much attention as they should.

So what does he do? Does he get demotivated? Does he feel like he should quit filming?

NO.

He still continues filming. And his videos are still as good as ever. And he still continues working hard even though he still isn’t getting much attention.

So why is he still doing it?

Because he is passionate about it.

He loves what he’s doing, he is good at it and he is never going to quit it.

And neither should you.

If you love something, if you’re passionate about it, if you feel it in your bones that you should pursue that and that only, then do it! What is keeping you from it?

If you want something, go get it. Period.

We are all in this world for a reason, and that reason isn’t to just blindly follow the system and do what the society wants us to do. Stop following the path everyone wants you to follow and create your own path! It might be tough, it might take some time, but if there is one thing I know, I know that it is going to be worth it.

Do you feel like you should create? Create.

Do you feel like you should sing? Sing.

Do you feel like you should draw? Draw.

Just do it, do the thing you love, do the thing you are passionate about. If you are really passionate about it, you are ready to grind, you are ready to invest your sweat and your tears to make things work out.

The thing is – you need to stap fearing the failure. This is not the time for it. We are here only for a limited period of time. If you don’t like what you’re doing right now than stop doing it at this instant. Find your passion. Find your obsession. Aim high and grab your dreams! No one is going to do it for you, you need to do it yourself.

And I know that you are going to make it, same as I know that one day my friend’s videos are going to get the attention they deserve.

Do not let the society to shape your future, it is up to you.

I believe in you.

Thank you for reading!

Love,

V

P.S. If you want to check out my friend’s YouTube channel, it is right here!

Day 2 – Cold Shower Challenge

Hello everyone!

Have you ever woke up in the morning and felt like garbage even though you had more than enough hours of sleep? And what’s even worse is that the feeling doesn’t seem to go away during the whole day!

As someone who tries to handle a lot of work during the day (and by a lot, I mean A LOT), I absolutely hate this feeling. There is nothing worse than trying to read an important lesson, or trying to write an article online and dealing with my eyes closing every five seconds.

So I decided to do my research and do something about it. Guess what I discovered?

Cold showers.

Yeah, that’s right. As it seems, cold showers are not only good for your health and skin, but they have a tremendous impact on your focus and memorizing abilities.

Now I don’t have to tell you how much of a benefit would that be to me as a college student?

So I decided to do a challenge. A 30 DAY COLD SHOWER CHALLENGE.

For the next thirty days, I’m going to shower for 5 minutes in ice cold water every morning as soon as I wake up.

The goal is that, after those 30 days, I will be so adapted to the cold showers that I won’t be needing any other kind of shower any more.

I cannot emphasize enough how excited I am for this. As someone who loves challenges (and experimenting on myself), I am absolutely thrilled about this experience.

Want to join me?

Let’s see where we’ll be 30 days from now!

Thank you for reading!

See you tomorrow,

Love,

V

P.S.

Check out this video on cold showers, it is great!

 

Day 1 – Think of It as a Lesson

You mustn’t fail this test or you won’t get a job when you grow up!

Ever heard that phrase before?

Failure.

Everyone’s afraid of it. You are, I am, everybody is. It is completely normal.

But have you ever wondered why is that? Why do we run away from our failures and try to remember only the times when we succeeded? It is as if failing at something automatically labels us as good-for-nothing losers who do nothing about their pathetic little lives.

Well, let me tell you something.

I have failed. A lot. I fail at something every single day. And do I think of myself as a loser? Absolutely not. In fact, I am thrilled when I fail at something.

Why is that, you ask? Why would anyone be thrilled when he or she has just failed at something important?

Because I just learned something new.

That’s right, I have learned something new and I’m thrilled about it. And it is not just that I have learned something, it is that I have learned something new by trying to do something, and failing at it.

If I had succeeded instead of failing, and faced the same problem some other time, I might have failed the next time even though I succeeded the first time. But when I fail at something once, I am never going to fail at it again.

And that, my friends, is why I am so thrilled about failing. I’m thrilled about trying things, I’m curious, I’m adventurous. I do not fear stepping out of my comfort zone, even if it will at first result with a failure. It only means that I need to try harder the second time.

That is why a failure is such a wrong word for it. I hereby rename it to something more appropriate. As of today, I replace the word failure with a much more appropriate word.

A lesson.

So I want to make a pledge, right here, right now.

This year, I’m going to do what is needed. Every day for the next 365 days I’m going to do something different. Every day I’m going to step out of my comfort zone and do something new. I will challenge myself. I will learn new things. I will do new stuff. I will enjoy life to the fullest. And I’ll probably fail a couple of times at first, but where’s the beauty of adventure without that?

Are you with me?

May the next 365 days leave an impact that will hold on for the rest of this amazing life!

Love,

V