I’ve never been the best at finishing projects or tasks. Of course, I’m incredible at beginning them. However, lately I’ve been focusing on accomplishing my to do lists and celebrating small wins to help encourage me to finish even more.
When doctors told me that I should probably quit surfing last year, I cried my eyes out like a high school boy who lost his first love. Never in a million years could I imagine giving up the one thing that brought the most joy in my life. But somehow, someway, I packed up my belongings and moved to West Hollywood to get away from the sight of the beach I adored so much.
That hiatus from the water has taught me a lot of valuable life long lessons. One of them being, there is always going to be something cool around the corner. Even if I was unable to surf another day in my life, I’d quickly find another hobby or activity that would fill the void. Being versatile and having many interests will almost always suit you well. Being open minded to new experiences will suit you even better.
During my time away from the beach I’ve experienced a plethora of new adventures. From doing stand up comedy to traveling to experiencing what it’s like to be a family man, it’s been quite the learning curve. I ventured so far out of my comfort zone and I wasn’t always on my A-Game. But life goes on, and you take another swing. You can’t win em all, nor would I want to. The agony of defeat is what propels me to get better and better each growing day.
Another thing that has been brewing in my head lately is how much things change. People change, the weather changes, the earth changes, laws change, politicians change, lovers change, and most importantly our opinions change.
It’s interesting to me that if a politician changes his stance on a topic, he’s referred to as a “Flip Flopper”. First of all, I hate that phrase because it gives a negative connotation to the best shoes ever invented. Secondly, aren’t we entitled to change our minds about things? Should we be so rigged in our beliefs that we don’t allow ourselves to flip flop now and then? New facts and experiences are constantly evolving and they shed new light on subjects that may require us to be a bit flexible in our decisions if we want healthy growth.
But most people don’t like change. They like routine, stability and being secure in most aspects of their life. Me, I’m a drifter, a gypsy, a vagabond who craves change like a drunk craves that first drop of booze on his tongue in the early afternoon. I’m addicted to new adventures and experiences. It seems like I can’t get enough.
And my latest experience has me grinning from ear to ear. This latest hobby is something that I previously was not a fan of. I was not eager to see this sport grow. In fact, I actually loathed seeing the popularity of this activity taking off like a rocket ship.
I’m talking about Stand Up Paddle boarding or SUP for short. The reason I didn’t like stand up paddlers is because I’m primarily a short boarder, which means I have to wait somewhat on the inside of the set waves to be in the best position to catch waves. SUP’s can catch the wave way on the outside. Now this isn’t that much of a problem because long boarders tend to do the same thing, but SUP’s make it happen a bit easier and tend to get more waves than the average long boarder. And this is where the problem lies… Stand Up Paddlers can totally hog the waves if they want. Most of them are chill and sharing, but it isn’t always the case.
The other thing that sketched me out about SUP’s is because the sport is growing so fast, there are a lot of rookies trying it out. Inevitably this creates a scenario where you have 9 to 12 foot pieces of fiberglass coming straight towards your head, and not always in full control mode.
Anyhow, despite my adverse feelings about Stand Up Paddling, it’s obvious the sport is not going to go away. People are in love with it. As time goes on, my opinions about SUP have altered dramatically. Mostly for selfish reasons. I want to get back in the water, and have a healthy back.
My biggest issue right now is building and strengthening my core muscles to support my L2 vertebrae in my back. It just so happens that Stand Up Paddling is one of the best core exercises you could ever find. Not only is it great exercise, but it puts me right back into my favorite place… “The Water”. Can you say win/win?
So my opinions have changed. SUP seems cool now. And it better because I just dropped a bunch of money on a new board and plan on getting another today. I got a 9 footer for playing in the ocean waves and surfing, and am shopping for a longer board that provides more stability for lakes, lagoons and rivers.
The first ride out onto Mission Bay was quite the episode. Since the board is only 9 feet it is considered very small in Stand Up Paddle land. It’s very wobbly when first stepping upon it. I mean, very wobbly. To make things harder on myself, I decided to venture onto the cold bay with nothing but board shorts. If I fell, it would cause me to be super cold! It was great motivation to stay on the board.
Thankfully, I made it. I’ve paddled 2 different sessions and have yet to fall. I came really close to biffing it a few times, but was able to regain my balance. Whew! However, I will fall many times in the future. Many many times. And it’s not just with surfing or stand up paddling. I know that I’m going to fall with many things in life and it’s not so much about the error or the tumble, but more about how I correct that error and get back up to try again.
Quitting sucks. I almost quit one of the most important things in my life the other day, and I’m really glad I didn’t. This thing has provided me with the most amazing life a guy could ever ask for and I was ready to just throw it in the trash and move on to something easier.
Want to know what I almost gave up?
Tune into the next blog post and I’ll let you know all about it. For now, I’m off for another paddle. Let’s see if I can make it 3 for 3 without falling.
Cheers,
Jason
PS: Here’s a pic snapped the moment I bought my new board! Big smiles 
The other day a friend on Facebook asked me about the differences between living in California and Oregon. My response was basically that the states are so large and so diverse that it’s tough to do an accurate assessment of state vs state but city vs city would probably be a bit more appropriate.
Within the thread a friend and colleague of mine Kristin Thompson mentioned a very cool site called “Find Your Spot“.
The site simply asks you a few questions about your ideal living environment and then goes to work with it’s custom algorithm to determine the places that you’d most likely be happy living.
Here’s how it all works (in their own words)…
“FindYourSpot is the best way to discover your perfect hometown… just tell us your ideal and we’ll find the best candidates for you. We don’t have the bias of your Aunt LuLu, we don’t have mounds of useless data for you to sort through, and we don’t have the gall of “best places” lists that tell you what your priorities are. What we do have is the most accurate automated recommendation system and the most pertinent information on the places we recommend. It’s simple, it’s fun, and it works.”
So, I went through the process which took about 5 minutes and here are the top 5 results it spewed out for me.
1. San Luis Obispo – CA (Nice place. I could live here)
2. Ojai – CA (Captured natural spring water here once)
3. Truth or Consequences – NM (Sounds scary)
4. Kahului-Wailuki Maui – HI (Love Maui so much, but this is the worst part of Maui)
5. Mountain Home/Bull Shoals, Arkansas (No idea what to think about this. Maybe I could get a dulcimer and strum on the porch)
To find out where they say your favorite living spot would be visit Find Your Spot at www.findyourspot.com
Cheers,
Jason
PS: So… Where did it say you should live? Let me know in the comments below
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WEBINAR DETAILS:
Mini Site Secrets With Jason Drohn
Tuesday DEC. 13th 9PM EASTERN
SIGN UP BY CLICKING HERE
Last week I got a heads up from a good buddy and JV Broker Andy Hussong about a webinar that people were absolutely going BONKERS over! Andy always has his nose to the grind and ear on the line about what’s moving and shaking in the online marketing world. Friendship with Andy has it’s privileges.
Since we are both heartbroken Chicago Cub fans, and mutual pals, I always get juicy insider information about what’s going on behind the scenes in the marketing world and what’s really working.
Andy told me… “Dude, you gotta check out what Jason Drohn is up to with his Mini Site Secrets program.” Trusting Andy’s advice and intel, I said “Sure, let’s see what he’s got”.
Within minutes I was emailed access to Jason’s members area for Mini Site Secrets. So I logged in, perused around, watched a few videos and was like… “DAMN… This is thorough and well done!”.
This is just a small screenshot to show the layout inside the members area.
Everything is super clean and concise. It’s easy to follow and literally walks you through the ABC’s of setting up simple content sites that make money via FREE online traffic methods.
For some reason, lots of people seem to be abandoning the idea that small niche sites can make you great money online. I don’t know where this silly rumor started, but niche marketing is far from dead. I’d go so far as to say that it will never die. There will always be people interested in specific and weird niche ideas. Always.
Anyhow, after going through his site and watching the videos for a few hours I knew I had to let people know about this.
Here’s why…
It’s totally newbie friendly and it’s exactly what you need to do when setting up niche income streams online. It’s plain as day and sitting right there for the taking. This is the kind of thing I LOVE to promote because it’s the real deal.
So, I told Jason to hit me up on Skype and within minutes we started chatting. 
We hit it off right away and it was obvious Jason knew his stuff. So, we talked about setting up a webinar so you could view exactly what it is he’s up to and how you can mimic it yourself to make a nice chunk of money.
However, before I agreed to the webinar I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to be a pitch fest and that Jason was going to actually teach us something on the call. Also, I didn’t want it to last 2 1/2 hours.
He said the webinar is fairly short at 1 1/2 hours after all Questions and Answers at the end, and he promised that he’s going to walk us through a LIVE demo of his exact system to make money online with these Mini Site Secrets.
Here’s what you can expect to see and learn on the webinar…
- A simple, easy to follow formula you
can steal that is guaranteed to produce
income for you.
– The #1 way of making money online LONG
TERM whether youíre starting from scratch
or youíve already got some experience
under your belt.
– How to pick out hot products to sell so
you get MAX commissions…
– How to RANK HIGH for the search terms
you want to rank for, in no time flat!
– The number one free traffic-getting strategy
that he uses in his business to pull in
thousands of people to his sites, and
hundreds of people to his list each and every
day, and it doesnít require a DIME!
– Ö Plus a lot more :0)
I’m stoke, and hope you join us this Tuesday.
Click Here To Register For The Tuesday Webinar.
Cheers,
Jason “Profit” Moffatt
PS: I’ll be giving away a FREE BONUS to a random person on the webinar valued at over $5000.00
All you have to do is show up for the webinar and you’ll be eligible to win! So make sure you’re here on Tuesday evening…
Click Here For Tuesdays Mini Site Secrets Webinar With Jason Drohn
I’ve always considered myself somewhat of a pacifist. Blood, guts and war makes my stomach cringe and I’ve always felt there has to be a better way to resolve conflicts than killing our fellow brothers and sister on the planet.
However, my beliefs were always a bit extreme and it wasn’t until I attended a Tony Robbins “Unleash The Power Within” seminar that I was able to use his Dickens Process to release my extremist views. I learned how to support and encourage those in uniform to better protect and serve us as individuals and Americans instead of just despising all military action. My rigid beliefs weren’t rooted in reality and didn’t take into account real world situations that are sadly inevitable in our current times.
After going through this Dickens Process I was able to still oppose war and violence, but still offer my support and understanding in times of conflict that would serve soldiers and the idea of peace on earth.
During that seminar I met a really cool guy by the name of Jeff Paro. He sent a email out today and I replied to him telling him I’d like to post it on the blog…
Jeff was a sales associate/motivational speaker at the event and was chock full of charisma and enthusiasm. I took an instant liking to him. Since then we’ve keep in touch via email, Skype, phone etc and I consider him a good guy and a friend.
I wanted to post the email he wrote because it was very inspirational and moved me.
I thought it may do the same for you, so I felt it was worth a repost here on the blog.
Jeff has proven himself as a effective communicator, excellent marketer and someone who cares about making the world a better place for all of us who walk the globe. I’ve always enjoyed reading his emails and bantering with him about product ideas to enhance people’s lives.
So, without further ado… here is the email he sent out today…
“I like to see what I am made of, see exactly if there is a limit to the human soul.”
These words by super human navy seal David Goggins, who’s daily routine is :
*Wake up at 3am, run 10-15 miles.
*Bike 25 miles to work.
*At lunchtime run 5-8 miles.
*After work ride home 25 miles.
*Do weight training (with wife)
*Sometimes after arriving home do a 3-5 mile run.
I know exactly what some of you are thinking… “Wow that is amazing, HE is amazing, there is no way I could ever do that…” David wasn’t always this way.
At one point in time he was 280 pounds and had never ran more than 20 minutes. After several failed attempts at a professional football career, David decided he wanted to become a navy seal.
The recruiter warned him that his weight would probably prevent him from finishing “Hell Week” and realizing his dream of becoming a navy seal.
Finish he did.
He also completed the U.S. Army Ranger school.
He also completed the Air Force tactical air controller training, making him the only member of the U.S. Armed Forces’ history to complete all 3.
Which brings me to today’s lesson.
Today I want to share with you 3 ways we limit ourselves: What’s possible.
For years many people said it is impossible to fly. Then they doubted it was possible to send a man to the moon. At one point they thought is was impossible to run 1 mile under 4 mins. All of these things that were thought to be ‘impossible’ have been proven wrong.
How do you prove them wrong? By doing it.
Can you prove that something is NOT possible? NOPE.
It’s impossible to prove a negative.(ouch my brain hurts thinking about that)
Try that one on again. What I’m capable of.
In David Goggins’ case, I know many of you are thinking…”good for him, but there is no way i could do that.”
And the truth is YOU ARE CAPABLE. There are examples of people with physical limitations, accomplishing similar feats.
With the right beliefs and dedication, I am certain that everybody reading this could accomplish at least ONE of his feats.
What I deserve.
This is one that many people find hard to believe. They don’t think it is possible that they would actually sabotage their own success.
The way that I teach this concept is like this. Imagine that you and your friend were supposed to hop on a plane headed to NY. You later change your ticket for a later flight. Your friend’s plane crashes.
How do you feel, besides sad?
Wouldn’t you agree that you would start to feel guilty? Not worthy?
Wouldn’t you probably start to ask yourself: “Why did I get to live and NOT him?”
It’s hard to imagine that you were more deserving of life than them.
In life, many people believe that success is a zero sum game. Which means in order for me to be successful others have to fail. They believe that ‘success’ is reserved for the select few. Unconsciously, they believe “if only a few people can be successful, then why should I be one of them?
I don’t deserve it more than the next guy/girl”
Can you begin to see how limiting yourself in any of these ways might stop you from getting what you say you want? Use David’s story to remind you of what IS possible, that you ARE capable of creating the life and business you want and YOU DESERVE IT!
After looking at David’s schedule and commitment level, I don’t think setting my alarm an extra 45 minutes early, is such a commitment.
Go out there and make it happen!!
I believe in you,
Jeff Paro
Jeff Paro is a marketing strategist, Influenceologist and the creator of Influenceology and a Not So Famous DJ. His site can be found at http://jeffparo.com/ along with his social media profiles. Give him a peek.
Here is the presentation that I gave at Trey Smith’s Seminar.
While most presenters were discussing things related to traffic, software, and general internet marketing stuff, I decided to do something different. I wanted to discuss strategies that will really get people to pay attention to you like nothing I’ve ever seen in the business world.
I think you’ll enjoy.
Please let me know what you think in the comment section below. Thanks.
And if the video resonates with you, or you think others will benefit from seeing it, feel free to share it with social media friends.
The player will show in this paragraph
There was once a marketer who kept a rabid mailing list of folks interested in making money online. He would often become greedy and to line his pockets he would promote any and every product launch that came before him.
“This is the greatest product ever. A definite Game Changer!” He’d say.
The subscribers on his mailing list would stop what they were doing and would run to purchase the latest and greatest product that promised to solve all their money woes. Once they purchased the product, the marketer just laughed and ran to the bank with their money. The unscrupulous marketer promoted like this over and over until his subscribers tired of him.
One day, the marketer truly did stumble across the greatest marketing device ever. It was guaranteed to help anyone who put it to use in their business. The marketer cried… “Game Changer” once again.
No one bought from the marketer ever again, yet all the other affiliates made off with handsome commissions and a ton of good will for being patient and promoting such a valuable product.
Well, it’s Friday and unless you’ve been living in a cave you’ve probably heard about overnight internet sensation Rebecca Black and her ridiculously catchy song Friday.
This girly has gotten about 17,000,000 views this week and a ton of hate mail and press. Poor girl. She’s only 13 and I’m sure she never expected anything like this to happen. Anyhow, we had to shoot a spoof. Kyle Cease pioneered the video and comedian Travon Free plays the rapper guy. Our buddy Diego edited the entire thing and Lana and I had small little cameos.
Grab some popcorn, cuz it’s Friday. errr…. I mean Wednesday.
Kyle did a follow up video today to give Rebecca Black a bit of encouragement. This is some really good advice for anyone dealing with haters or nay sayers.
For the last 6 months my iPhone has essentially been a $300 paperweight. If I were to factor in the amount of lost calls and missed opportunities the monthly monetary damage would be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Despite the fact I could only use my iPhone for phone calls about 30% of the time in my La Jolla home, I stuck with it. I’m a addicted Apple fan boy just like so many others out there. I had a land line telephone for the sole purpose to call people back when the iPhone dropped the call. I didn’t even know my own home phone number because I never received calls on it. I left the ringer off for most of the 6 months.
Piss Off iPhone
Now to be fair, I’m not sure if the blame should be cast at AT&T or at the developers of the iPhone itself. Blogger Cory Watilo had an interesting opinion in his blog post Why The Verizon iPhone Won’t Be Better Than The AT&T iPHone. He concludes that it’s not the network and a flaw in the design of the iPhone. He comes to this conclusion by noticing that AT&T users who have different phones don’t experience the woes that iPhone users do. Therefore it’s probably not the network, but the phone itself.
Cory has a interesting hypothesis. I’m not sure what the truth is, but I do know that it’s damn frustrating to pay $300 for a phone, $116 a month for service and still the damn thing doesn’t work most of the time.
Despite the fact that my phone wouldn’t work even when I lived in one of the most affluent communities in the United States, I still didn’t cancel. Two days ago I moved to West Hollywood and had my fingers crossed that maybe, just maybe, once again I’d be able to reliably use my phone.
Well, I have good news and bad news.
The phone actually seems to work okay. Yay! The bad part is my internet connection via the 3G network is dog shit. It’s atrocious. If it’s not one thing it’s another. My favorite app is Maps, but it’s almost worthless in my new home. Accessing Facebook works about half the time, and when it does work it’s slower than molasses. Damn you AT&T. Or is it damn you iPhone? I’m not sure.
I was speaking with a rep from Verizon last night while canceling my Mifi card and told him of my phone troubles. He gave me some inside info and said I may want to hold off for about 5 days before I make any decision on getting a new phone. He couldn’t tell me what the big news was, but encouraged me to be patient.
Considering I waited around for 6 months like an idiot paying my bill for shotty service, I’m sure I can wait another 5 days to see what other options may exist.
So, are you a iPhone user? How has your experience been? I’d love to know in the comments below. Hopefully you’ve had better luck than I.
After seeing a quote from Joe Polish on Twitter, I decided to add a exercise into my presentation at Frank Kern’s Mass Control seminar in which we encouraged people to get out of their comfort zones and try something new. Enjoy.
