A year and a half ago, I was in a real slump. I was 5 years out of college, had lost my job again, and was cutting into my small savings. I would sleep in until noon, wake up, eat a big lunch at a buffet, then come home and take a nap. Needless to say, I was gaining significant weight.
One day I went to a different buffet and really indulged. It had all of the foods that I had been craving all winter but couldn't find: Pecan pie, a slurpee machine, and plenty of other junk. It was absolutely shameful, and after I went home, I knew I had to turn things around.
So, I started thinking that I needed to eat healthier. I decided to eat three square meals per day, with balanced food groups, the way I was raised (more or less). What intrigued me the most was the memory of my father eating celery with his breakfast. I realized that I could eat all of the food groups (vegetables, fruit, whole grains, lean meats + limited nuts and dairy) at every single meal - including breakfast. I switched my diet on a dime, and never looked back.
The first evening was the hardest. I remember having a headache from the change, and had to drink a lot of water to ease the pain. But, one week turned into one month, then three months, and I was still on track. I lost about 20 pounds in that time, and was working out ferociously. I rode my bicycle everywhere, including two miles to the gym, where I would then swim one mile. In the middle of all that, my car broke down and stayed broken for a whole month, but it didn't even phase me, because I was biking everywhere. I would bike several miles to the grocery store, and return with a backpack full of 20+ pounds of groceries. I also took up rock climbing, which was so intense, it caused me to stop drinking alcohol, in order to improve my performance.
But suddenly, I had an issue - I was constipated. I actually panicked a little, because I was so happy and secure in my new diet, and confident that it could last me forever. I searched for a solution online, then I realized on my own that my body just needed more lubrication: water. I was only drinking maybe 1 Liter of water per day. I did some research, and decided to bump that number up to 3 Liters per day. I quickly lost another 5-10 pounds, and then stabilized at that weight very well.
After a month of drinking 3L/day of water, my job situation was now very dire. My savings were trashed, and I had no career momentum, because I had spent the last 4 months focused on exercise. I continued to hit the gym, but started putting all of my energy into job applications and interviewing. I generated a handful of interviews for myself with decent companies, but for jobs that I wasn't especially enthusiastic about. Then one night, I was sitting in a bar with a friend (drinking glass after glass of water), when it dawned on me where I should apply. I applied online to that company as soon as I got home that night, and they called me for an interview two days later. Without going into details, the job was a no-brainer given my interests and experience, and I was offered the position immediately following the interview. I believe I started the next day.
I began as a low level associate, then was promoted to manager after one month. After one year of managing, I worked my tail off at an opportunity to move up to a high paying management job, and now here I am. I have a full time stable job with health insurance, which could probably last me at least another year if I wanted to stay. It allows me to engage my hobby 24/7, at work and with online access from home. It is a great place to be for now.
Back to the level of health, I spent the spring, summer, and fall of 2010 working out pretty hard still at the gym. I spent $30/month at a regular gym with weights/pool/track, then another $40/month at the rock climbing gym. Meanwhile, I was dating some nice women. Then in the winter, things fell apart. I started hurting from the lifting, so I stopped, and the indoor pool felt too cold to swim in, so I quit that too. I still rock climbed once a week, then twice a month, then once a month, but then stopped. My girlfriend caught mono, the next girls I dated didn't stick, and everything slowed down.
Luckily, my job hung on during the winter, so I just hibernated there, continued to eat right, and rode out the winter. When Spring 2011 came, I was busting my chops to keep the local division of the company running smoothly, and didn't have time to focus on exercise or dating.
Now the Summer of 2011 is here, and things are changing again. The work situation calmed down, and when the dust settled, I was managing the best local location for the company. I was working only 40 hours/week again, so I had time to focus on my own projects again.
I realized that I no longer went to my gym, since I had moved, and my job had moved, so it was completely inconvenient. I canceled my membership (saving $30/month), and switched to kayaking at a local lake, and jumping at a trampoline gym. Neither of those things were cheap ($10-15 per session), but it was a fresh rhythm. Then, I struck gold. A coworker mentioned in passing that she had met with a personal trainer once, and he kicked her ass without any equipment. I researched "body weight exercises", and opened up a whole new discipline for myself. If I could develop a long repertoire of body weight exercises, I could get a serious workout any time, any where, and for free. This, just like the clean eating regimen (still ongoing), was something I could follow every single day. All I needed was a few square feet of open ground, and 20 minutes.
So now here we are in mid-2011, and my daily habits are:
- eating clean food, balanced food groups
- daily exercise
~ average 6 hours/day at job that I love
Now keep in mind, these are all great things, but the end goal is to be rich, and being tied to a job is not part of that plan. The way to be rich is to build assets that you own, and then live off of their income. My labor should not go towards growing my employer's assets, but rather it should accumulate to glorify my own assets. You want to own your life, not rent it.
I should mention at this point, that I rent a room with friends. It's cheap, but I don't build any equity in a home that I own. Also, my car is old and beat up.
So, the goal is to increase my income to well over $100,000/yr, and my net worth to well over $500,000. Down the road, those should increase also, but I have to start where I am.
In any case, the goal is to increase the job income, while also building assets on the side which produce income. Eventually, I would have to choice to live off of the assets and leave the job if I chose to.
Looking back, the feeling I got when I switched to the food groups eating was amazing. It was like cutting the chains to restaurant and whims and floating up and away. I never felt like I needed to go out to eat again, or that I would gain any benefit from that.
Likewise recently, when I saw that I could exercise 20 minutes every single day for the rest of my life, and never pay another dime to a gym again, another set of chains was cut. I would never have the excuse of "I don't want to drive to the gym, it's too cold to go running, I don't want to spend the money to climb". No matter what my station is in life, I will always have 20 minutes and a little open ground space. Whether I end up working 100 hours/week and flying the world, or sit on a beach having sex all day long, I will be able to exercise daily.
So, in line with those things, I think I can expect the internet to last for the rest of my life. So, I want to spend at least 20 minutes per day creating content. I expect I will be able to do that every day, from anywhere, unless I'm riding a camel in the sahara or scuba diving. Even then, I might have a satellite internet connection. So, I guess I could just become an author. The magic is, the content I create today will still exist tomorrow, and there will still be ads or products sold around it to generate revenue. Even if blog revenue starts small, the important thing is developing the habit of building my own business a little bit every single day.
So, now you are caught up to my present. The next step is women, I guess. At some point in the future, my dating/sex situation will stabilize into some happy habits, and I won't have to think about them as much.
Recapping, the habits I'm setting up today will hopefully last even when I'm a 90 year old man.
- eating clean
- regular body weight exercises
- building own business/assets/writing daily, which generate income
- regular women/sex
I'm betting my whole world will shift as these things all materialize, and I'm looking forward to big changes!
Thank you for reading, I hope you'll return and bring your friends.
